Johanna Reid nay Stark
by sunsetstargazer
Summary: Jo never knew who her father was until her mum died when she was 15 and she finds a shoebox that reveals all. Her life changes forever and she is thrown in with the crazy life of the Avengers and is loving almost every minute of it.
1. Prologue

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N So I'm starting another o/c fic even though I really should finish my other ones but this has been bugging me so here we go again. I plan to include all of the Avengers as well as Peter Parker in this story, other characters from the MCU may be mentioned but they'll be the main ones. By the way this is going to be set in a bit of an AU where the events of civil war didn't happen and the avengers are still living in avenger's tower in New York but Peter is about where he is post Civil War i.e. Tony knows about him and has given him the suit but the rest of the world doesn't know who he is including the other avengers, hope this makes sense. Oh and JARVIS is still around as an AI so no vision as confusing as this all is but it's my story so I'll do as I please_

Prologue

Sandy was in a bar in Manhattan in December of 2000 when she met him, he barged in at about 1:00am stumbling around loud and demanding a drink. She never normally would have even thought to go near a guy like him but she'd just broken up with her boyfriend of 3 years and she was angry and more than slightly drunk herself. She walked straight up to him an asked if he wanted to dance with her, something fast-paced was pouring out of the stereo in the corner of the room and she was feeling bold. He looked her up and down in a side glance and put his drink down on the bar extending his hand to her, they walked to the centre of the room and joined the other people already dancing and danced around laughing together losing track of time.

By 3:00am the bar was emptying and it was clear he wanted to leave, so after a moment's deliberation clear on his face, he asked her if she wanted to come with him. She didn't even hesitate before grabbing her jacket off the stool by the bar and taking his hand, they stepped out into the freezing night air and he quickly walks over to an Audi parked illegally on the curb. They got in and he drove her to a hotel that she could never possibly afford normally, he parked at the entrance and instantly someone stepped up to take his keys which he simply tossed in their direction. She scurried after him feeling distinctly out of place and starting to wonder just who this man was, she didn't recognise him but then again, she didn't really keep up to date much with news so he could be famous for all she knew. He strides past the reception and none of the staff bat an eyelid at this man walking into their hotel without warning at 3 in the morning followed by a nervous looking woman, they get in the elevator and he leans over kissing her on the neck. She jumps at first but relaxes soon and even returns the kiss on his cheek. The door to the elevator opens into what must be the penthouse and she stumbles in shock, everything in the room looks like it would fund her for the rest of her life. She steps in carefully now feeling completely out of place but he pulls her towards the bed, already undoing the back of her dress.

When she wakes up in the morning she can't remember anymore after that point but she can fill in the blanks since she wakes up naked in the bed still in the penthouse, feeling the other side of the bed, she finds it empty and knows that he's gone already. She sits up and notices a piece of paper on the bedside table next to her, to her surprise it has her name on the front; Sandy Reid. She picks it up and unfolds it.

"Sandy,

Thanks for an amazing night but we could never take it further. I'm sorry.

From

Well, you'll figure it out."

She re-folded the note and put it back down, what the hell had she gone and done?

6 Weeks Later

Sandy looked down at the little blue plus sign and sighed, now she was really done for, no boyfriend, minimum wage job and now she's pregnant. She could have an abortion but she had been raised Christian and even though she didn't really hold onto all the aspects of it, she just couldn't bring herself to go and get the abortion. Her parents had died years ago and she has no family left, this child could give her the family she had wanted so desperately for years. So, she made the bravest decision of her life and kept the baby, she worked hard looking for jobs wherever she could and saving money so she could be ready. It wasn't until late one night when she was watching the news rubbing at her 8-month pregnancy bump that she saw him again and realised that the father of her child was the one and only Tony Stark.


	2. All Alone

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Another chapter coming up now, I'm hoping to keep up a fast ish pace of updating this story so you should be seeing more again soon. Please read and review and as usual I still own no one in this except Jo I guess._

Chapter 1

January 2017

Jo walked along the hall towards the office, someone had come to her class and told her the principal wanted to see her. Her classmates had jeered and drummed on the table as she walked out presuming she was in trouble but she walked out ignoring them, probably just the school trying to get her to take part in another competition, she's always been smart and is constantly doing competitions. Last time it was the Academic Decathlon so she can only guess it'll be something similar this time.

She knocks on the door waiting for someone inside to call that she could come in, before opening the door and stepping inside. To her surprise there were two cops stood in the room with the principal, they turned and looked towards her sympathy obvious in their eyes and she instantly knew something had happened.

"Johanna, why don't you sit down?" the principal said gesturing towards the sofa against the wall and she carefully perched herself on the edge of it. She fiddled about with her fingers feeling her heartbeat beginning to pick up, and she tried to take steady breaths, but the gaze of the two police officers wasn't helping.

"Ms. Reid, at 1 o'clock this afternoon we were called to the scene of a car accident, when we got there we found 2 cars were involved one was a drunk driver and the other unfortunately was your mother. Paramedics and doctors did all they could to save her but…" the police officer said. She didn't hear the rest of what was said as her world sucked in around her and she could no longer focus on anything, she didn't need to hear them say it to know that her mother was dead. Her mother has always been her world, the two of them were all they had in this world and now she was gone, she couldn't breathe at the thought.

She didn't know how long she'd been hyperventilating for but her vision was starting to grey out around the edges because she wasn't getting enough air. Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder and she was being pulled against someone's chest, she could feel the warmth of them through their clothes and she latched onto the person as she sobbed and tried desperately to breathe. After a few minutes, a familiar voice began to float into her ears and she realised that she was clinging to Peter Parker, her best friend other than Ned of course. They must have called him in as well when the news came in and she was grateful for it now because without him she would be swirling in her grief with no-one to help ground her. As it was it took her at least another 10 minutes to pull herself together enough to look up again and Peter kept his arm around her the whole time whispering comforts in her ear. She looked up and saw that the cops were still stood there obviously waiting so they could continue and so she told them to continue.

"Well since you have no other family or listed guardians you will have to go into emergency foster care for tonight until something more permanent can be worked out. I am so sorry for your loss" the police officer said.

"She can stay with me, my aunt won't mind" Peter started saying, but the officer cut him off.

"I'm sorry but Ms. Reid has to come with us for tonight, we can't allow a minor to go with someone who isn't family unless they are already a registered foster parent" he said standing and opening the door, gesturing for her to go outside. She hugs Peter one last time before standing shakily and walking out of the room. Once outside she follows the cops back to their car and they drive her over to a house somewhere in Queens taking her inside and introducing her to the foster parents that she is to stay with for the foreseeable future. All too soon she is sat alone in the unfamiliar bedroom with nothing but the clothes on her back and her phone. Taking it out she sees 6 missed calls from Peter and Ned and about 30 texts from the two of them combined all asking if she was ok or begging her to reply. She sent a quick text to both of them saying that she was fine and that she'd talk to them tomorrow, before lying down on the bed and crying until she eventually fell to sleep.


	3. Your dad's who?

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Here again, please read and review and enjoy_

Chapter 2

The next morning Jo wakes up and for a moment she doesn't remember where she is, she looks around at the unfamiliar walls and panics slightly wondering what has happened but then it hits her like a wave and she remembers that her mum is gone. With a shaky breath, she pushes herself up and goes downstairs, still in her clothes from yesterday and takes a slice of toast from the table without a word to the two strangers temporarily acting as her guardians. She leaves the house and sets off for the nearest subway station, where she immediately heads for home, or at least the flat that she shared with her mom, not that it's a home anymore. Stepping inside she sees the chaos that they always leave it in, neither of them really bothered to do much cleaning, Jo because she's a teenager and her mom because she worked 3 jobs just to get them by. She goes through to her mom's bedroom and lays down on the bed, enjoying the familiar scent of her perfume and remembering the times they'd watched movies together hear and laughed together. She feels the tears threatening to fall but forces them down again knowing she can't cry forever.

She opens her mom's closet and runs her hand along the clothes trying to remember every detail of her, but her eye is caught by a box in the corner of the top shelf. She'd never seen it before and pulled it down wondering what could be in it, once she'd set it on the bed she opened it and was shocked to see it full of pictures, of the two of them together, going all the way back to when she was just a baby. At the bottom of the box she finds one picture that strikes her as odd, it's a polaroid picture, and it's clearly her mom in the picture, probably taken about 20 years ago, but the shocking part is the man in the picture with her. Tony Stark grins at her from the picture, and as she pulls the rest of the pictures out she sees several pieces of paper at the bottom, one her birth certificate which she has seen before of course, with the father line left blank like it always has been. Jo had always known that she was the result of her one-night stand and her mom had always claimed to not know who the man was, and that she didn't want him to feel as though he had any responsibility for her because it was her mom that chose to keep her. Looking through the other letters she begins to realise that her mom had lied to her, there was several publicity shots of Mr. Stark in the box and comparing them it was clearly him in the polaroid picture, and there was even a newspaper clipping of a report about "Mr. Stark being seen with a mystery woman at the Park Hyatt in December 2000". This couldn't be true could it, surely her mom would have told her, but at the very bottom she finds two letters, one with her own name on it and one addressed to "Tony".

She opened her letter with shaky hands taking out the piece of paper inside and unfolded it laying it out on the bed in front of her so she could read it.

"Dear Jo,

I hope you never have to find out like this, if you've found this box then you probably already know what I have to tell you. I've always told you I don't know who your father is because it was easier than telling you the truth, I didn't want you to get your hopes up because your father is not a man who you come across every day. We met in the Golden Rabbit bar in Manhattan it's been destroyed now, but we danced together and he asked me to go with him. I did even though I thought it may have been a bad idea but you came out of it and you always have been and always will be my entire world. His name is Tony Stark, and I doubt he'll even remember who I am but I just wanted you to know who he is, I planned to tell you when you turned 18 but obviously something has happened. I'm so sorry I can't be with you now but know that I'll always be watching over you.

Love Mom"

Jo was shaking again by the time she finished reading the note and felt herself getting dizzy, she looked again through the pieces of paper and this time found a folded piece of paper with her mom's name on the outside and sees the Park Hyatt logo in the corner, this must be the note he left her based on what it says. She's jolted from her thoughts by a knock on the door and jumps sending the papers in her hands flying everywhere, she grabs them shoving them back in the box and closing it before going to open the door. She looks through the peephole and sees Ned and Peter on the other side of the door, she immediately throws open the door and pulls them inside.

"What are you guys doing here?" she says sounding more panicked than she intended.

"We knew you wouldn't be coming to school and Pete thought you might be here and we didn't want you to be alone" Ned said looking anywhere but at her, and she smiles at his familiar nervous energy.

"It's fine Ned, I'm glad you two are here, I'm just… having a hard time computing all of this" she says still breathing heavily.

"Why don't we go sit down? We can talk…" Peter suggests and the three of them go to the couch they've sat on so many times together before but never under these circumstances.

"Sooo" Ned says but Jo can't take it anymore.

"Can you guys keep a secret?" she notices them immediately stiffen and wonders what nerve she's just hit but can't contain herself enough to care.

"Like, I need to tell you something but you can tell no-one I mean no-one at all, if you can't keep it then say now because I really need your help" she says desperately and can see them relax again as they realise she wants to tell them something.

"Of course, we would never tell anyone if you said we couldn't, right?" Peter says, looking at Ned who also nods.

"So, my mom always told me she didn't know who my father was, he was a one-night stand and all that but… I just found something and... Wait here" she gets up without warning and goes to get the box from her mother's room, leaving the two of them sat there confused.

When she returns she puts the box on the dining table and the two of them come over to watch as she pulls out the pictures, when she reaches the bottom she pulls out the polaroid and shows them it.

"That's Tony Stark, are you saying he's your…?" Ned says looking confused.

"There's a letter to. Look she says that she was going to tell me when I turned 18 and explains how they met. I don't know what to do now. I might still have another family member out there, but there's no way anyone will believe it, and besides he's Tony Stark, there's no way I can even get in contact with him." Jo says looking down at the letter in her hands.

"Umm, there may be a way for that to happen actually" Peter says looking around very shiftily.

"What do you mean?" she says looking between the two of them, Ned obviously knows something as well by the way he's looking round again.

"You have to understand Ned only found out by accident and that I never would have told him either because I needed to protect the two of you" Peter says.

"Get to the point Pete" Jo says.

"I'm Spiderman" Peter says, but Jo doesn't jump back in horror or whatever Peter was expecting her to do. "Did you hear me? I'm Spiderman".

"Oh no I heard you Pete, to be honest I already suspected you were, for a while now and figured you would tell me when you're ready" Jo said smiling at him for the first time since yesterday. "But, not that that isn't a revelation and all but how does that help with Mr. Stark?".

"I know Mr. Stark, he made me my suit, I could probably get him to meet with you, or we could always spring in on him I guess" Peter said.

This time Jo's jaw drops open, "You know him, how could you know Tony Stark and keep that hidden" she says slapping him on the shoulder.

"Well if I told you I knew him then you'd have known I was Spiderman so I had to keep both a secret, but no I can go with you and we should be able to see him" Peter offered.

"No, I need to do this alone, you can help me get in contact with him but I will go alone to see him" Jo said determination in her voice.

"Ok, I understand, I can text Happy and ask if there's any way to meet up with him, I'll just tell him that it's really important" Peter said already getting out his phone.

"Wait who's Happy?" Jo asked putting a hand out to stop Peter typing anything into his phone.

"Oh right, Happy is Mr. Starks assistant slash driver person, I'm not really sure but I'm supposed to text him if I need anything and it's the only way I've got to get in contact with him so it's our best bet." Peter says looking up at her.

"Ok, go ahead I guess" Jo says shakily sitting down on a chair at the dining table looking at the polaroid picture again.


	4. The Meeting

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Now it gets more interesting for Jo. Please read and review_

Chapter 3

"Happy replied, gosh he hasn't replied to me in like two weeks, I can't believe it. Right, he says that Mr. Stark wants to know what it's about, and that he's not a 'show pony who I can trot out for my friends whenever I want, so it better be real important'" Peter reads from the text.

"We can't tell him in a text, umm I don't know what to do" Jo says panicking again from her seated position on the chair still.

"Relax its ok we'll work it out. Maybe we should just go over to the tower and try it that way and hope he'll let us talk to him?" Ned suggests.

"Can we really just turn up like that though, it's like the most secure building in the city, you can't just walk in" Jo says incredulous.

"Maybe you can't" Peter says winking at her.

"Oh god Peter what's going through that little head of yours now?" Jo asks looking apprehensive.

"Well he has his JARVIS installed in the tower and she knows who I am so maybe if we turn up he might let me in and I can ask if they'll let you two in?" Peter suggests looking hopeful.

"It could be worth a shot, I guess" Jo says carefully, but you can't tell him why I'm there, just say that I really need to talk to him, as a favour to you or something, whatever you have to say just don't tell him who I am" Jo says, and Peter nods solemnly promising not to.

"So, are we going to Avenger's Tower then?" Ned asks looking hyped and terrified at the same time.

"Yes" Jo says with a shaky breath and picks up the polaroid and all the letters and the article, and putting them in her backpack, before shouldering it and heading for the door.

They use the subway again to get to the tower emerging back into the bitterly cold air with shivers from all of them, and craning their necks to see to the very top. After one final look shared between them they all step into the entryway, Jo and Ned stop just inside the door and wait hoping that they're not about to be shot or something by hidden lasers, while Peter walks into the centre of the room.

"Mr. Parker, Sir wishes to know why you have come so unexpectedly and brought company even though Sir is under the impression that no one knew of your relationship with him" JARVIS said seemingly from everywhere at once.

"That's not actually what he said is it JARVIS" Peter says with a smile.

"No but I chose to paraphrase since some of his language may be inappropriate in front of minors." JARVIS said again.

"Well could you tell him that I have come with my friend Johanna Reid and that she has discovered something that she really needs to talk to him about, she doesn't want me to say anymore because she wants to talk to him in person so please as a favour to me can he come down here, or can we go up, but it's essential that we get to talk to him and the sooner the better" Peter says knowing full well that Mr. Stark is likely watching the feed of this right now.

They all jump when doors on the other side of the room open and an elevator is revealed. "Sir is on the 42nd floor" JARVIS says and Peter looks over to Ned and Jo with a tentative smile.

The three of them stepped into the lift tentatively, there was no buttons so they just looked around expectantly, and as expected the doors closed and they felt the acceleration as the elevator shot upwards carrying them up the 42 floors in only about 20 seconds. The doors opened and Jo wasn't sure she's even going to be able to take a step she was shaking so badly. Peter went ahead of the other two knowing how terrified they must be, they followed him out and into a bland looking corridor, a door at the end of the corridor slid open and they entered the room. What they saw when they entered made even Peter stop, this was clearly Mr. Stark's personal lab, various bits of Iron Man armour amongst other tech that they didn't recognise was scattered around the huge lab, floor to ceiling windows covered the entire wall of the lab allowing the light from outside to flood in.

Jo was overwhelmed for a moment and imagined that this must be how her mother had felt walking into the Park Hyatt all those years ago with a man she'd only just met. Speaking of the man, Jo could see a figure bent over one of the various desks fiddling with something that seemed to be giving off sparks but he wasn't distracted by them and kept going. She watched as Peter stepped over and cleared his throat.

"Umm, Mr. Stark I'm sorry for barging in like this, these are my friends Ned Leeds and Jo Reid, Jo really needs to talk to you and I think you are going to want to talk to her as well." Peter says carefully.

"I already heard you say that downstairs kid, JARVIS passed it all on, so Ms. Reid what can I do for you?" Tony said turning to face Jo fully and she forces herself to breathe again.

"Umm, you m-might not remember but in December 2000 you met a woman in the Golden Rabbit bar in Manhattan and you a-asked her to go with you, she w-went and you went to the Park Hyatt t-together" Jo said her voice shaking on every word. She saw the frown forming on the man's face and pulled her rucksack of her back, walking over to place it on a nearby table that was clear of stuff luckily. She unzipped it and rummaged around pulling out the note with her mom's name on it.

"You left this the next morning when you left before she woke up" she then pulled out the polaroid picture "and here's a picture that I think was taken at the bar of you two" she handed both of them to him and he took them his calloused hands rough when they brush against hers.

"Yeah, I remember her why? We had a good night but that's all it was, I never saw her again" he said starting to look sceptical.

"Umm I was born September 2nd, 2001, and well my mom always told me that my father was someone she'd had a one night stand with but she insisted that she knew he didn't want anything to do with her so she said she didn't tell him that I exist. Mr. Stark my m-mom died in a car crash yesterday morning and I found this box in her room, I've got a letter she wrote for you, I haven't opened it b-but…" Jo cuts herself off knowing that she's going to cry soon and so instead she just holds out the letter. She looks up into his eyes and can see the dawning realization of what she's saying in his eyes, he snatches the letter from her and she jumps back slightly. He rips open the envelope and his eyes quickly scan the lines of writing before he reaches up running his hand through his hair. She doesn't quite know what to do at this point and the look in Mr. Starks eyes is starting to scare her, he looks angry and she becomes convinced he is angry at her, she starts putting the things back into her bag and slings it over her shoulder backing away from him slightly.

"So I'm… I'm your father, is that what you're saying then" he says looking for all the world as though he's going to cry. She keeps backing up until she walks into Ned who is still frozen behind her, he puts a hand up squeezing her shoulder and stepping around so that he is between Jo and Mr. Stark, because he doesn't like the way the man is behaving either.

"Yes, but I don't want anything from you or anything like that, I was just kind of hoping I might at least you know get the chance to know you, it's only ever been me and my mum and so you're now the only family I have left so… yeah, but don't worry if you don't want me I can just go now and you'll never have to see me if you don't want to, I can go back to those foster parents they seemed ok" Jo realised she was mumbling.

"Don't worry Jo you can stay with either of us, we won't let you end up with strangers" Peter says confidently re-appearing in Jo's line of sight and offering her a slight smile.

"Jo, if you don't mind me calling that, I never forgot about your mother, I have had a lot of one-night stands over the years and it's always the same, they would recognise me and I could tell that they just wanted me for my fame and money, but your mother she was different, I knew that she had no idea who I was. She walked up to me in the bar and just asked if I wanted to dance, there was no pretence to it, just a simple request for a dance and we had so much fun, I asked her to come with me and she did, I wanted so badly to stick around and be with her but I knew that she wouldn't want the kind of life that would come with being with me, so I left before she woke up, I kept tabs on her to make sure she was ok over the years but I never knew she had a child… But now I know about you I want to be in your life. I'm not perfect so you'll have to get used to that but I want to try and do better with you than I did with your mother." He said looking into her eyes he could see the resemblance to both himself and to Sandy in this girl's face and was sure that she was his, there was no doubt about it.

"I would like that Mr. Stark" Jo said carefully but now stepping out from behind Ned again.

"Please if you don't mind call me Tony, Mr. Stark makes me feel old, which I'm definitely not" Tony said with a smile.

"Ok, Tony" Jo said.


	5. Are you Bruce Banner?

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Another update so quick I'm doing well again. Please read and review_

Chapter 4

The 4 of them in the room had been stood in silence for almost a minute when Tony spoke up.

"Why don't we all go upstairs and we could have some lunch? I'm guessing you haven't eaten yet, and Pete I know you can usually eat half a horse?" Tony said hoping to ease the tension.

"Yeah that would be good I'm always hungry" Peter said but to everyone's surprise the rumble of hunger came from Jo's stomach not Peter's, they all turn to look at her.

"Sorry, I guess I haven't eaten since yesterday." Jo mumbled looking down shyly.

"Well JARVIS I'll have a pepperoni pizza, what about you guys?" Tony said, looking around at the 3 expectantly.

"Just a burger and fries" Ned says not sure if he should be getting money out or not.

"I'll have 3 margarita pizzas" Peter says getting a laugh from Tony at the amount of food.

"Umm, a meat feast pizza I guess" Jo unsure. Since she realized that she hasn't eaten or drunk in so long she was starting to feel the painful growling of her stomach, it felt like her stomach was trying to eat itself from the inside out.

"Why don't we go up to the communal floor, then we can have the food up there?" Tony says clearly uncomfortable, he still was clutching the letter Jo had given him, but shoves it in his pocket as he walks over towards the door. He pauses in the doorway looking over at the teens who were still stood frozen, with a wave of his hand they all jump into action and walk over to the door.

Jo had been lost in thought, that was much easier than expected, though she supposed that he would probably want to do DNA tests and things because she knows that plenty of people will have tried to claim they were his child in the past and he won't be so naïve to believe her based just on what she's said, but for now it seems he's taking her word for it. She jumps when she realizes the others are leaving the room and hurries to follow them, as she gets to the door she stumbles suddenly starting to feel light-headed. She holds onto the doorframe for a second before pushing off and walking on along behind the others. Peter is talking to Tony about something to do with his suit, but Jo isn't listening any more, she can feel herself shaking and sweat is forming on her face, she feels freezing all of a sudden and even the slight breeze as she walks makes her shiver. When they reach the lift again she leans against the wall inside allowing the others to do the talking but her legs are trembling under her and the fast-upward motion of the lift sure isn't helping.

The doors open again revealing the communal floor, which at any other point Jo would have paused to marvel at but she could barely stand upright so instead she forces her shaking legs to walk to the massive sofa in the middle of the room, she just about sits down rather than falls down and immediately drops her head into her hands breathing in deeply counting each breath for 4 seconds in 4 seconds out. She sees someone in front of her and can hear voices around the room but can't focus enough and slowly slips forward accepting the blackness with no way to fight it.

Peter had just thought that Jo was deep in thought because normally he'd never seen her be this quiet but when the doors opened he knew something was wrong, she practically ran from the elevator looking as though she was going to trip over her own feet at any second. He quickly followed her out of the lift leaving Ned and Tony behind, and he makes it to the sofa next to her just as she sits forwards. Getting a look at her face he can see that her skin has completely lost all its colour and there's a thin sheen of sweat covering her face, he puts his hand on her shoulder and feels her trembling muscles and knows that this must be the lack of food and water catching up to her.

"Is she ok?" everyone in the room jumps at once not having realised anyone else was in the room. Looking over Peter sees a man with dark hair wearing a purple shirt, standing in the kitchen area with a bottle of water in his hands.

"Uhh, I think so she hasn't eaten or drunk anything since yesterday so she should be ok if she drinks something, she was fine a minute ago" Peter said carefully not sure who it is but sure he recognises the man. He leans in closer to Jo and tries to get her attention but she seems to be slipping forwards no longer able to hold herself up, he easily takes her weight holding her up as she slumps over his shoulder, but isn't sure where to go from there. The man from the kitchen puts down his water bottle and jogs round towards the two of them.

"She needs to be laying down, if we get her feet up she should come around, then we try to get her to drink something" the man says taking charge instantly and lifting Jo off of Peter laying her flat on the couch, and pulling her legs up putting the pillows under them. Peter stepped back watching as the man felt her pulse on her wrist and everyone in the room watched her pale face.

Jo slowly came back from the blackness blinking her eyes open slowly, and trying to decipher the blur of shapes in front of her eyes, Peter's face was the first thing to come into focus and she smiled at how worried he looked. She looked around seeing Ned and Mr. Stark standing behind the couch looking down at her, finally her eyes came to rest on the only person in the room who wasn't there before.

"Are you Bruce Banner?" Jo mumbles not quite sure if she's hallucinating or not because she is still feeling very shaky but based on the smile forming on the mans and the fact that she's in avengers tower she guesses that this is actually happening.

"That's who you are oh my god I knew I'd seen you somewhere, we've all read your work on gamma radiation and we even did a paper together about you a couple of years ago, I…" Peter began rambling and Jo knew that they'd lose him if she didn't cut him off, so she raised a shaking hand and poked him in the chest.

"Later, Pete" Jo said before letting her hand flop back down and huffing out a breath.

"How are you feeling? Still dizzy I'm guessing but do you feel sick?" Bruce said still smiling from her reaction.

"I'm ok I think, just need a drink" Jo says slowly pushing herself up so that she was sat against the arm of the couch, she noticed the Bruce was hovering close still and was holding her wrist checking her pulse. Tony materialized next to her with a glass of water which she took in still shaking hands and carefully lifted it to her mouth taking a few sips, Bruce takes the glass putting it on the table.

"So, Tony you going to explain why there's suddenly three teenagers in the tower, when I thought you didn't like kids" Bruce said sitting back on his heels and looking around expectantly.

"Oh right umm, it's complicated, I'll explain it eventually but for now this is Jo, Peter and Ned" Tony said pointing to each of them as he says there names. Just as Bruce goes to open his mouth again JARVIS interrupts them.

"Sir the food has arrived downstairs, I took the liberty of adding on Mr. Banners usual pesto panini and fries seeing as he will be joining you I presume" JARVIS announced to the room causing Tony smirks.

"Thanks JARVIS have it brought up" Tony says standing and walking over towards the lift presumable to get the food from whoever brings it up.

"So Dr. Banner is it true that you managed to prove that Gamma radiation…" Peter went off again excitedly, but Bruce cut him off with a hand held up shyly.

"Probably yes but maybe we could discuss it another time, and please call me Bruce, so what brought you three to the tower then, and how did you come to get in this state Jo" Bruce said looking at her carefully watching her reaction.

Jo shrank in on herself slightly and had to hold back the urge to cry again, she felt she'd done enough of that already and she couldn't cry forever. "Umm, well it's a l-long story, I don't know if Tony's going to want to tell you himself because he knows you and n-no offence other than reading your research I don't know much about you or if I can trust you" Jo says watching the look in Bruce's eyes turn to curiosity because he now knows this must be something big. Tony walks back with the bag of food hearing the end of the conversation.

"It's ok Jo I trust Bruce completely you can tell him, I will later if I can find the words" Tony says looking sincere and Jo looks across at Bruce who looks happier than she's seen a person before when Tony says that he trusts him. Jo knows in that instant that she can tell him, the rest of the Avengers will probably find out anyway since Tony won't be able to keep her hidden from everyone on the planet.

"Ok, well I'm Johanna Reid, my mom met Tony back in 2000, and they had got along very well if you catch my drift, and well I was born in 2001, my mother never told me who my father was but umm s-s-she died yesterday, and well I found a picture of them together and letters from her explaining what happened and well, long story short, Tony is my dad" Jo says looking down at her hands the entire time but in her peripheral vision she sees Bruce's head snap up towards Tony and she doesn't dare to look up not wanting to see the reaction.

"Are you sure?" Bruce says carefully, obviously not wanting to upset her further.

"Of course, I'm sure, are you trying to say my mother lied to me, how dare you!" Jo shouts with a sudden surge of rage and she's up on her feet, charging away from Bruce, how dare he imply that about her mother would make something like this up. She has made it to the other side of the room before she turns back and sees that Bruce is still sat where he was but he's now breathing carefully and deliberately his eyes fixed straight ahead.

"I'm sorry Bruce I didn't mean that I'm just angry that she's gone, are you ok you look a little green" Jo says noticing the slightest tinge of green forming at the edge of his eyes and she steps closer to put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, step back, Bruce listen to me no-one here is threatening anyone, I don't want to have to get the windows re-done again, come on Bruce there we go, you back again." Tony says keeping up a constant stream of calming chatter and Jo watches as the green fades from Bruce's face and he slowly stands up and looks towards her.

"Thanks Tony. Sorry about that, I know you weren't really angry at me, just I know what it's like, losing your mother that is" Bruce says looking at her, and in that instant Jo realizes what just happened, but she doesn't want Bruce to think she's afraid so she steps forwards so she is only a step away from Bruce and holds her arms out indicating she wants to hug him.

"Truce?" Jo says. Bruce smiles looking relieved but is still apprehensive about the hug and she can feel that he is still stiff, even as he hugs her but she is determined that she will be able to make him relax.

"Wow, how come I never get to hug Bruce, I thought no-one got honoured like that" Jo nearly jumped out of her skin and Peter restrained himself from hitting the ceiling when the unfamiliar voice came from the direction of the lift. They turned to look and saw a man with short blonde hair and wearing a vest and sweatpants standing by the lift, this must be Hawkeye, though his real name isn't public.

"Clint, you know for once you could enter a room without making everyone jump, just because you're the top secret super spy and all that you don't have to do that all the time." Tony says from over by the kitchen where he is still sorting the food out.

"I could but that would be no fun, so seriously why is Bruce giving out hugs to teenage girls and why are these two looking like they want the ground to swallow them?" Clint says, Peter and Ned immediately looked up and tried to look less out of place than they felt.

"What's it to you if I wanted to hug Bruce?" Jo says walking over to stand directly in front of Clint having to look up at him but still managing to look down on him somehow "Maybe if you tried a little harder to not have the hobo look going on you might see some more action too" she says darkly to him poking at his vest covered chest before spinning on her heel and walking over towards the kitchen snatching the box containing her meat feast pizza. She'd just sat back on her couch when she heard chuckling coming from Clint.

"I like her, she's kinda like a way less lethal Nat, though you could stand to work on your scowl kid" Clint says laughing and walking over to snatch a piece of pizza from Tony, before strolling over to the lift again. The others slowly moved to the kitchen getting their food and coming over to sit down on the couch, with Jo.

"So you said you're with foster parents, do you know their names, I need to get my lawyers going right away, we'll need to do a DNA test to prove that you're my daughter, but I need to keep this private, I can't let anyone know who you are because that would put you in danger, JARVIS start searching everything we need to do…" Tony starts talking not even touching the pizza in front of him.

"Woah what do you mean? I thought you'd just want to meet me, why do you need lawyers, I promise I didn't come here for money or anything, you're my only family that I've got left I had only hoped to get to see you" Jo said feeling slightly panicked, she hadn't actually expected him to want to go this far, it's not that she didn't want to be with him but she only lost her mom yesterday so she's feeling overwhelmed again.

"Jo, look at me I've missed 15 years of your life, I'm not just going to leave you, I'm your father and I know that what you've heard about me probably isn't very good, but I promise I'm going to do everything I can for you from here on out, including getting you out of that foster home, you're moving in here." Tony says leaving no room for argument in what he says.

"Thank you, Tony, I can't believe this I thought I was going to be on my own when they said mom is dead" Jo says, leaning over to hug Tony who's sat next to her on the couch.


	6. Moving In

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Onwards we go in the story. Please read and review_

Chapter 5

Jo was sitting in the passenger seat of Tony's Cadillac, watching the world fly by as Tony speedily weaved through traffic. After they'd finished eating, she'd told Ned and Peter that they should go back to school because they would get in trouble otherwise. After they'd gone Tony had suggested that he drive them back to the apartment she shared with her mom and they could sort through what she wanted to bring over to the tower. It felt so odd to be going over there again, Tony is used to such a lavish lifestyle and she knows that he's never known financial troubles like she and her mom have. As they neared the apartment building she could feel herself getting nervous again. What would Tony think of the apartment, it was only a tiny two bed place with a kitchen diner area, not even a lounge, and her mom had always worked at least two jobs to get enough money to pay for it.

Soon they had pulled up outside and she was getting out again, she left her rucksack in the car, and let them both into the building, once they reached her front door, she paused looking at Tony, in his Armani jeans, AC DC t-shirt and Ray Bans, and took a deep breath before she opened the door. She expected him to make a comment about the mess or the size of the place, but instead he walked straight over to the fridge, I wondered what had caught his eye until I realized that he was looking at the picture, there must be at least 30 pictures covering the fridge held on by magnets and more in a box on top and blue tacked to the wall, all of them of her and her mom, as well as some with Ned and Peter in. She watched as he ran his hand over some of the pictures, they went all the way back to her as a baby, and she could have sworn she saw his eyes watering at the sight of them.

"We just kept adding pictures, every time we took one it would go on there, eventually we started putting the older ones in the box on the top because there was too many" Jo said chuckling at the memory of when they had to spend so much time trying to balance them all on the fridge only for the slightest breeze to take more off again before her mom finally called it quits and started the box.

"It's just suddenly so real, I can't believe I never realized, I should have checked on her more closely I could have been there for you all along" Tony said looking at here the tears in his eyes clear now, and she instinctively walked up and put her arms around him, he stiffened at first and gasped but she waited patiently and he relaxed soon, returning the hug squeezing her tightly, even kissing her on the top of the head before letting go again.

"I guess I should get stuff together then, I started packing my clothes earlier to take them over to the foster family, so I'll go finish that, maybe you could stay here and put the rest of the pictures into the box and we can take that as well" Jo suggested knowing that she could never leave them behind, they had been taken down and put up again in every place that her and her mom had lived in and she wanted to keep them now as well.

"Sounds good Jo" Tony says smiling at her before turning and starting too carefully take each picture down, she noticed he was keeping all the magnets as well, most of them novelty ones picked up over the years from the places she'd been, she turned away feeling satisfied that Tony was alright in the kitchen. She went through to her room and pulled out a suitcase from under her bed, she crammed all of her clothes into the suitcase, she didn't have more than a few changes of clothes anyway so there was still room to spare in the suitcase which she filled with her laptop, iPod, and as many of her books as she could, putting the rest into a box she had under her bed, looking around the room she was shocked at how little time it had taken, she's never really had much anyway but it had only taken half an hour to pack up all of her things, even taking the time to put her stuffed toy that she has had since she was born.

She closed the suitcase and went back out into the kitchen, she saw that Tony had finished with the pictures and was now sitting at the table, he looked up from his phone when she came in.

"You done already, there's no rush you can take all the time you want to" he said looking concerned, but she just smiled tiredly.

"There are only 3 rooms Tony, and we never had much stuff anyway, mom could barely afford the rent and to feed me let alone to have loads of stuff as well, just give me a minute to go through her room and then we can go" Jo said before going back into her mom's room. She opened the closet again getting the box out and putting it on the bed, she went over to the bedside table and got her mom's jewellery out, thinking about how she'd always known where it is but this is the first time she's ever touched them because her mom always told her that she was to leave them alone in case she broke them. She opened the box running her finger over the few pieces of jewellery, she had thought her mother had more than this but she has probably sold a lot of it because they never had any need for fancy jewellery. Deciding not to think any more into it she closed the case and put it on top of the box with the pictures in it, looking around the room she knew she was done.

When she walked back out she saw Tony was on the phone and so she set the box on the table going through to her room and getting the box from her room as well as her suitcase and putting them by the table as well. After only a minute or so Tony hung up the phone and smiled at her.

"That was my lawyers, I've been granted guardianship and as soon as we have a DNA test done I can be legally made your father, but I've done it so that this will be kept under wraps, so we should avoid you having to deal with press and things." Tony said smiling at her.

"That's awesome" Jo said hugging Tony again but she couldn't help but feel guilt rolling through her, her mom is gone, she should be upset not happy that she's got Tony.

"Hey, I know that look on anyone, you are allowed to be happy, Sandy would have wanted you to go on, she wouldn't want you to grieve forever, you can be sad of course but remember you're allowed to be happy" Tony said sincerely.

"Spoken almost like a true father there Tony" Jo said around a slightly choked laugh that was half way to a sob.

"Come on let's take this stuff down to the car and then I was thinking we could watch a movie tonight, whatever you want and we can order whatever you want for dinner" Tony said wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Sounds good" Jo says reaching for her suitcase.

They made it back to the tower in only about half an hour despite the heavy traffic, but the sun was already setting by the time they drove into the garage under the tower. Jo got out of the car and looked around in wonder, she hadn't noticed the other cars when they went out earlier but now looking around she was shocked, there were some amazing cars there, she'd helped out at a mechanics last summer for some extra money and she has always been good with technology and cars, so when she sees such amazing specimens she forgets about Tony and walks over. She already has the hood of one of the cars up and is running her hand over the engine before Tony even notices she's gone.

"Beautiful isn't she, you like cars then?" Tony asked walking over to stand next to her.

"Always, I've always been good with mechanics and engineering, and I guess now I know why" she said looking around at her dad's garage noticing the various bits of tech also scattered around on tables and computers displaying designs for various projects some she recognized as Iron Man armour parts as well.

"Well, I could give you the grand tour while we wait for the food to arrive if you want, just let me know when you fancy and I'll have JARVIS order it so we can stay down here." Tony said.

"Ohh umm, well I'll just have a burger or something" Jo said dismissively not wanting to be particular when Tony has already done so much for her today.

"Come on you can do better than that, don't you want something a little more extravagant, it's no problem to me I swear" Tony said looking at her his eyes almost begging her to choose something she actually wanted.

"Ok well, I'd like lasagne and garlic bread really but I don't think that's the kind of thing you can order to be delivered in so don't worry" Jo said.

"I can get anything delivered trust me on that, ok so lasagne and garlic bread right, no dessert or anything?" Tony said smiling at her as he looked up at a small camera in the corner of the room that Jo could barely see presumably talking to JARVIS in part now.

"Well it's been a while since I've had that chocolate cake that I like from the bakery by school, don't suppose you can get that as well can you" Jo says smirking, thinking that wouldn't be possible but wanting to see how far he'd go.

"Would that be the bakery next door to midtown high school, I've had an intern sent to get a selection of slices of their cakes now" JARVIS announced.

"What the heck you know I was joking right, wow I didn't know you could actually do that, ok well thank you JARVIS that was very nice of you" Jo said purposefully not thanking Tony even though she knew it's him who is technically getting it for her.

"Hey, just cause he's ordering it he gets all the thanks then" Tony says pretending to be annoyed.

"Well it's only logical Sir" JARVIS says and Jo can't help the laughter that burst out of her, it's honest and loud and Tony just stands glaring at her and trying to glare at JARVIS though it's hard to glare at someone that doesn't have a physical form though somehow, he still pulls it off.

"Ok gang up on me is this how it's going to be then now, come on squirt let's have a look around shall we?" Tony said already walking over towards the nearest table. He put his hand in the centre and lifted it up and Jo's jaw dropped, all laughing at him forgot as she stared at the 3D hologram that he'd just pulled so effortlessly up on the table.

"Wicked, can you add designs on while it's in this format that is so cool" Jo said reaching her hand out and using her finger to spin the hologram around which she now realises is the building they are currently stood in, Tony watches as she spins it and zooms in on several portions with ease.

"You've got the hang of that quick, even Bruce struggled at first, Cap still doesn't even know how to work a phone yet" Tony said genuinely impressed.

"Well I told you I'm good at this stuff" she says tapping a file and opening up the hologram of the latest Iron Man armour, causing Tony to jump forwards and close it with a quick flick of his hand.

"Maybe we stick with non-explosive things for now" Tony says walking over to his Audi making it clear she was to leave the hologram alone now. Jo pouts and walks over to the car as well, opening the door and getting into the driver's seat.

"You know today was probably the first time I've actually been in a car except for cabs, we never had a car because we always used the subway, this is so much better than the subway2 Jo said with a grin, but Tony looks sad at this comment.

"Well you can play around with these whenever you want and once you're 16 I might even let you drive one of them though you're not starting in this beauty, she's custom built and I've tweaked her to just how I want her, couldn't bear to see her wrecked" Tony says running his fingers along the top of the car.

"Hey, who says I'd crash it, I could be an amazing driver for all you know" Jo says grinning at him as she holds the wheel and pretends that she's racing complete with commentary and crowds screaming as she comes in first by a mile. Tony just laughs quietly and walks back over to the Cadillac they came back in.

"Well that's possible but you're still not starting in this one, our food should be here by now, why don't we take your stuff up and then we can have food?" Tony says. Jo jumps out of the car shutting the door carefully behind her before jogging over to the trunk of the car and dragging out her suitcase.

"Let's go I'm starving" Jo says, and they head over to the elevator, Tony holding the other boxes. When the doors open it's not onto the communal floor as Jo had expected, instead it opens into a different floor, still clearly a living area but was less open with several doors leading off into other areas.

"So, this is my floor, I thought that you might prefer to be on the same floor as me, you can have your own floor if you'd prefer, there's plenty of room, and the avengers all have their own floor but I figured you'd probably want to be on a floor with someone in case you need something" Tony starts talking very quickly but Jo cuts him off with a hug.

"No, it's perfect, this is already bigger than any apartment I've ever lived in, and you're right it'd be lonely on a floor this big by myself, thank you so much" Jo said as she had her arms around Tony's neck, him not able to return the hug because he was still holding the boxes. After a moment Jo released him and looked around taking it all in.

"I had a room prepared for you, but you can have it decorated however you want but I just went plain for now" Tony said opening a door off to the side and showing Jo into what is definitely the biggest bedroom she has ever seen in her life. The walls are simple cream coloured and one wall is taken up by floor to ceiling windows giving a view of the setting sun over Manhattan and the bed in the centre of the room must be at least 7ft by 7ft and Jo lets go of her suitcase taking a running leap landing on the bed getting buried in the pillows. She rolled over and looked at Tony.

"God, I'd love to see what happens if you put effort into a room" she says jokingly. She managed to roll off the bed and ran over opening the door she'd noticed before that led into an en-suite bathroom complete with rainforest shower and jacuzzi bath tub. This is more than she's even seen before.

"I've got JARVIS installed throughout the tower, though his visual is disabled in the bathroom obviously and you can tell him to cut it when you're changing obviously, but if you need anything at any time day or night then you can ask him and he'll help you, or he can get me for you as well, right" Tony said.

"Right Sir" JARVIS replies instantly.

"Right let's go eat then" Tony says walking out leaving Jo stunned in his wake.


	7. Dangerous Place

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Things get interesting for Jo. Please read and review_

Chapter 6

Jo wakes up the next morning in her new bedroom, and for a second she forgets where she is, looking around it all floods back to her and she smiles as she remembers last night, her and Tony had stayed up till midnight watching movies together and she'd eaten more cake than she thought possible, JARVIS wasn't kidding when he said a selection, there was 1 of every cake from the bakery in the kitchen when they got back to the communal floor. She'd liked spending time with Tony he was funny and had kept up a running commentary on the movies, which had her laughing till her stomach hurt, she still missed her mom but she was also glad that she had met Tony. She got out of bed and walked over to the windows, blinds were covering them blocking out all of the light and she looked around for a way to lift them.

"Did you want the blinds open Miss Reid?" JARVIS asked making Jo jump since she'd forgotten he has access to her room.

"Yes JARVIS I was looking for a way to bring them up, they're automatic aren't they, could you open them for me please?" Jo said looking around at the room in general finding it odd still to talk to an empty room.

"Certainly Miss" JARVIS says and immediately the blinds slowly begin lifting, she has to blink against the bright light as she looks out over the city. To her surprise she sees some sort of plane coming in to land directly above her, on the roof of the building.

"JARVIS what's that?" she says hoping he'll know what she means.

"The rest of the Avengers are returning to the tower, yesterday only Sir, Master Banner and Master Barton were present, but now the rest of the team have returned from the mission they were on." JARVIS says and Jo shivers slightly. She hadn't really thought through the reality of living here, these were the Avengers they were a completely different league to her.

"Where is my dad right now?" she asks JARVIS surprising herself by referring to Tony has her dad.

"Sir is on the roof greeting them, would you like me to request that he come to you?" JARVIS asked.

"No, that's ok. I just wondered" Jo says not wanting to interrupt him. She goes through and after only a moment's confusion manages to turn on the shower and quickly washes and dresses into her best pair of jeans and a red hoody, leaving her feet only in socks. She pads through to the living area on the floor she now shares with Tony, and looks around. "Is there any food around here or do I need to go back to the main floor?" she asks the room.

"There are some energy bars and alcoholic beverages in Sir's room but if you want something more appropriate for breakfast you will have to go to the communal floor Miss" JARVIS replies.

"Just as I thought, is there anyone on the communal floor right now?" Jo asks hoping to avoid meeting all of the avengers right now.

"Master Banner is in the kitchen area but the other Avengers appear to be retreating to their respective floors first so you should be safe to go there and avoid awkward encounters" JARVIS says and Jo could have sworn she's being mocked.

"You know you can be almost rude at times" she jokes to JARVIS before heading over to the elevator. The doors of the elevator open revealing the communal floor, and she steps out looking around carefully, true to JARVIS's word it's empty and she walks over to the kitchen. JARVIS had said that Bruce was in here but maybe he's gone already, though she gets her answer when she sees him sat at the kitchen counter with a glass of orange juice and some toast in front of him, reading the newspaper. He looks like he's very into whatever he's reading so she opts to go onto the fridge and leave him too it, opening the door she sighs, Tony wasn't kidding when he said there's no food, the fridge only really has drinks in it, and some random bits of food that aren't much help for breakfast. She goes through the cupboards as well and ends up having to settle on a glass of milk and some pop tarts, which there is an oddly large supply of, as she's putting it in the toaster she jumps at the sound of a voice.

"Don't let Thor see that you're eating his pop tarts" Bruce jokes from where he's sat, he has put down the newspaper and is now watching her.

"Oh well, there's nothing else, so I'm having them and if he finds out I'll just tell him Tony did it, and start running" she said to him winking.

"That I'd like to see, so what's your plan for today?" Bruce asks.

"Well, I don't really know, JARVIS said Tony is on the roof with the others and I haven't met anyone else yet, so I might just go out and meet Peter and Ned, I don't know if Tony wants the others to know about me so I guess I should make myself scarce." Jo said munching on her pop tarts.

"Tony won't want to hide you, I talked to him last night after you went to bed to see what he wants to do, he doesn't want the press to know about you because that would put you in danger but he was going to get them all together tonight and explain what's going on to the other avengers and he wants you to meet all of them. Besides, he'd never be able to keep you from Nat especially." Bruce said.

"Nat?" Jo tilted her head to the side.

"Oh Natasha Romanoff, or the Black Widow" Bruce explained.

"Right as long as I don't have to fight any of them then I think it should be ok" Jo said only half joking and Bruce just smiles before looking back down at his newspaper.

Jo finished her pop-tarts and washed her glass in the sink, before leaving it on the draining board.

"Well I'm going to disappear for now anyway, because I'd rather not get caught having just eaten the precious pop tarts, I'll see you later Bruce" she says going back to the elevator.

Soon she's back in her room and pulls on her sneakers before grabbing her phone and her rucksack and heading for the elevator. As the elevator takes her down she figures she should at least let JARVIS know where she's going.

"JARVIS, I'm going to Peter's apartment if Tony asks, stupid question probably but you have my phone number if he wants me, right?" Jo asks.

"Indeed, Miss I have your number and you will find that a number has been added to your contacts, this is a direct line that will take you straight through to me and I can pass you onto Sir wherever he may be at the time" JARVIS says, surprising Jo that Tony had already gone to such lengths.

"Ok, thanks, I'll be back later then I guess" she said awkwardly not sure if she is supposed to say bye to the AI but he doesn't reply so she guesses that the conversation is over.

A couple of hours later and Jo is sat in Peter's bedroom with Ned and Peter, it's a Saturday so none of them have to be at school and they have been together talking everything over.

"So, you get to meet all of the Avengers tonight then? That's awesome" Ned said still star struck.

"Yeah, I'm nervous though, what if they don't like me, I mean I'm just a normal person, I've not got any powers" Jo said getting anxious again.

"Jo, you are amazingly smart and you are Tony Starks daughter so who cares if they like you or not, Tony obviously does and that's all that matters.

"I guess you're right, I'm just hoping it goes well, I guess I should probably start heading back because I just said I'd be back later and it's already 4, don't want JARVIS calling me" Jo said picking up her bag.

"That would be so cool, do you have his phone number then" Ned said.

"I've got a phone number that JARVIS said will put me through to him and he can get hold of Tony better than if I just phoned Tony directly, I guess he can get Tony from anywhere in the tower" Jo said her hand feeling at her phone in her pocket.

"Nice, even I don't get that" Peter said, "I'm just stuck phoning Happy".

"Well I think daughter goes over random spider friend Pete" she says poking her tongue out at him.

Peter just returns the gesture and waving goodbye at her, she takes the hint and goes out saying a quick goodbye to Aunt May before heading back out into the cold. It may only be 4 but in the depths of winter the sun is already going down and it's bitterly cold, she walks along the alleyway that cuts through to the nearest subway station. She would normally avoid alleys but it's particularly cold and she's not going to be in there long so she goes through quick, she's almost at the end when someone steps out from behind a dumpster.

"You shouldn't have come down this way, don't you know New York is a dangerous place at night" the mugger said, she guessed that it was a man but his hood was pulled up obscuring his face from view. She tried to keep walking but he stepped in her way again, this wasn't going to end well, but she had taken some self-defence classes before and so she tightens the straps of her rucksack and steps towards the man.


	8. The 'Quick Way'

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Thank you for the reviews everyone they honestly mean so much to me_ _And BlooAngels 15 year olds do have a knack for getting in trouble and Jo is no exception, and I like the idea of Clint or Happy doing something like that but for now it's the real deal. Please read and review_

Chapter 7

"Look, I don't want any trouble, just leave me alone and I'll not say anything about you" she says but the man was obviously expecting this because he just steps forward taking a swing at her. She manages to dodge his first punch just about the second one catches her hard across her left check and she winces at it but doesn't let it slow her down and snaps her fist out catching him in the face, he stumbles back swearing at her. He recovers quickly and runs at her, but she side-steps at the last second and he slams into the wall, she braces herself to fight again but instead he slides down the wall unconscious and she breathes a sigh of relief.

Her relief is short lived though, when she sees another two men emerging further up the alley. She got lucky with this man but now there's two and there a lot bigger than the previous man, she backs up but they keep coming and she suddenly remembers something that could help her. She pulls out her phone and flips it open, she scrolls through the contacts seeing the number that wasn't there before "You Know Who" and not having time to laugh at the name Tony had put it in as she hit the call button holing the phone to her ear.

"Sweetie, the cops won't be here in time, you'll be done for before they even get in their car" the larger of the two men sneered.

"You're going to wish I was calling the cops" she muttered as the phone connected and JARVIS's voice came through the phone.

"Are you on your way back yet Miss, Sir is beginning to wonder…" JARVIS begins but she cuts him off.

"164th Street and 73rd Avenue, near Peter's place, could do with some help" she says breathlessly needing to get JARVIS to understand, hoping that he will send the police because she can't fight these guys and win.

"Jo what's going on?" Tony's voice came through the phone obviously JARVIS had put her straight through to him. She doesn't get the chance to reply to him when one of the goes gets within range of her and takes a swing, she's cornered and doesn't have a way to get out.

"Your friend ain't coming girlie, now just give us everything you got and we might let you live" the mugger says and she feels her heart speeding up. The surge of adrenaline gives her the confidence she needs and she snaps the phone shut putting it back in her pocket raising her fists up. The bigger one punches her hard in the ribs leaving her breathless and she doesn't have time to recover before the other hits her in the face. She's against the wall of the alley now and knows that no-one is coming for her in all likelihood so she knows she's going to have to change tack on this. She blocks a punch with her arm sloppily and takes the free moment to swing her leg up kicking the bigger of the two in the nuts and is satisfied when he bends over in pain, the second one tries to swing at her again but she ducks and jabs at his eyes with her fingers managing to hit him in the left eye at least and he grabs at his eyes temporarily blinded. The bigger one has started to recover so she knows she has to move now, and so gets down low and braces her leg against the wall pushing off and crashing into him managing to knock him over, before she makes a run for it along the alley and keeps sprinting. She pulls her phone out and sees that "You Know Who" is calling her repeatedly, she answers it and puts it to her ear while still running.

"Jo thank god, I'm on my way to your location, what's going on? Are you ok?" Tony says sounding panicked.

"I'm ok, just stupid, I went into the alley near Peter's and there were three guys down there" Jo said panting between words as she just ran aimlessly trying to put as much distance between her and the alleyway.

"I'm watching your phones position you're not in an alley, did you manage to get away from them" Tony said and she can now make out what sounds like an engine in the background of his end of the phone call, she realized with shock that he is in the suit heading for her.

"I managed to run away but I don't know if they're following me so I'm not stopping till I'm sure they're gone" Jo says turning a corner, and continuing to sprint, though the pain in her chest is catching up with her now.

"Ok, good I'm nearly there, keep running and I'll pick you up in a minute" Tony says sounding determined. Jo wasn't quite sure she's going to like what happens next because if Tony is in the suit then picking her up should be interesting. Only a few seconds later she slows to a jog when she hears the roaring of the Iron Man suits repulsors and looks up to see Tony coming down towards her. He lands in front of her his faceplate up revealing the concerned look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you, I handled it myself anyway and I know better than to go down alleys after dark but it's freezing and I wanted to get back quick" Jo says trying to justify herself because she didn't want to worry him.

"Jo, I wouldn't have minded if you'd just called to ask me for a lift, I would have sent Happy to get you, in fact from now on Happy is driving you whenever you're out after dark, maybe just always. But we'll talk about that later, are you ok? Your bleeding" Tony says reaching out for her forehead which has a small cut on it where one of the punches caught her.

"Yeah, they only hit me a couple of times, I can clean it up later" she says, she goes to walk into the subway station to head back to the tower but she feels the hard metallic hand on her shoulder.

"You can't think I'm letting you out of my sight again like that, I'm taking you back the quick way and Bruce can check you out" he says stepping forward and making as if to grab her around her chest to carry her, but she jumps back.

"No they hit me in the chest and I'd rather not be carried by it thanks" she says and he glares at her.

"Fine so how do you want to do this then, because you're coming with me no matter what" Tony says, looking at her clearly serious about it.

"Do you have repulsors on the back that you need to fly back?" she asks.

"No, I can fly with even only 2 working…" Tony trails off as she walks around to the back of him. She flips her hood up over her head and jumps onto his back wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

"Good, let's go then, just don't break the sound barrier because I don't think I can hang on through that" she jokes bracing herself for what's coming.

"That works I guess" Tony says putting his hands down at his sides and flying upwards slowly and hovering his faceplate flipping down. "You ok back there" he checks.

"Yup, just loving it, how long is it gonna take to fly back?" she inquires nervously pulling her arms and legs tighter the higher they got.

"Well normally only a minute but I suppose I could slow it down to 3 just for you" Tony says and she can hear the smirk in his voice. He jets off faster than she thinks is necessary and she tucks her head into the back of the armour closing her eyes when the wind got too much.

In the end, it takes almost 10 minutes so she knows he must have slowed down a lot more than he said he would, she's cold and stiff by the time she feels them slow down. She lifts her head up and sees that they are coming in towards the tower, she looks closer at the roof and sees Bruce as well as an unfamiliar man waiting on the roof. She had hoped to slink off quietly and not get a lecture for her stupidity but it doesn't look like that will be happening. Tony lands gently onto the roof and with the noise of the repulsors gone she is left with only the wind and faint noises from the city far below, he waits patiently as she releases her stiff legs from around his waist and drops to the floor before he gets out of the suit and it walks off by itself.

"Ok that's not something you see every day" Jo says about the suit but her voice comes out hoarse from the cold wind she'd been breathing while clinging to the suit. "Hey Bruce" she says nodding to the scientist and starting to walk as confidently as she can over towards the elevator in a last-ditch attempt to escape the inevitable.

"Get back here Jo, you're still getting checked over whether you like it or not" Tony said and she turned back finally letting Bruce and the other man see her face.

"What happened? Tony just said he needed me to meet him up here because you'd called to say you were in trouble" Bruce said walking over to her and already examining the wound on her forehead.

"I was an idiot that's all" Jo said and with a glare from Tony she continued "I cut down an alley to get to the subway but there was 3 guys down there who decided that they wanted everything I had, I managed to knock one of them out but then the other two appeared and I called Tony, I thought he'd send the police or something, so I kicked them in the nuts and managed to make a run for it thinking the police could pick them up, but then Tony insisted on the 'quick way' even though I could have totally got the subway, and hey what did happen with those guys did they get away?" she said.

"The police already picked them up, I made sure JARVIS gave them the location and they got all 3 of them, don't worry" Tony said, and Jo could see the anger flaring in his eyes. She took this as her queue to try and get away again but as she tries to walk to the elevator Bruce puts his hand out and accidentally hits the spot that's sore on her ribs. She gasps involuntarily and backs away wrapping her arms around her chest protectively.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Did you get hit in the chest as well?" Bruce says carefully approaching her again holding out his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"Yeah, sorry just didn't realise how sore it was until then" Jo said. Bruce put his hands towards the hem of her hoodie and looked to her face asking her permission before he went any further. She nodded and looked away so he lifted her hoody and shirt revealing an angry red mark on the left side of her ribcage that's already looking slightly blue around the edges.

"Well it just looks bruised, I don't think you need an x-ray, just some painkillers and rest" Bruce says stepping back and lowering her shirt again. She smiles her thanks at him grimly, in the sudden quiet she remembers again that there is a third man on the roof with them, he looks over at him and suddenly realises who it is, she had to write a history paper on him when she was little, she turns to face him where he had been stood silently watching the activity thus far.

"Hi, sorry not the normal way that I like to introduce myself to people, but then again I passed out on Bruce yesterday so maybe this is just how I'm doing it now. Mr. Rogers, right?" she says smiling and extending her hand towards him.

"Call me Steve and don't worry about it, I've seen worse. So, forgive me but who are you then since you clearly know who I am?" Steve says looking confusedly between the three of them.

"Oh right, Cap this is Johanna Reid, and she is the reason I wanted everyone to meet tonight, I want to tell everyone at once so why don't we head straight down now" Tony says going for the elevator. The ride down is near silent and Jo feels her anxiousness from before returning full force, but she tries to stay calm, she's already met 4 of them so only 2 more to go now anyway.


	9. G'night Dad

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N This chapter gets a bit more emotional because Jo can't be strong all the time and the next one will possibly be even worse because yes BlooAngels the funeral will be in the next chapter and thank you also Winchester'sGirl00 I am considering having some bonding with one of them but I'm not sure yet, and thank you for your reviews_

Chapter 8

The elevator doors opened and she walked out first seeing three people sat on the couch's in the centre of the room, she recognizes all of them already but waits patiently as they turn around taking her in.

"So, everyone I guess you want to know why you're all here, I needed to talk to you because I've recently found something out and I want you all to know, in part because I'm pretty sure I couldn't keep her contained anyway" Tony jokes and Jo glares at him silencing him.

"What Tony should be getting around to telling you sometime next week is that I'm his daughter, I didn't even know it until I found out recently but I am and he has let me stay here" Jo says waiting for the oncoming questions and fully expecting them to kick her out on the spot.

"I knew it" Clint was the first to say anything and she can't quite believe that he reacted so well to it, still he has already met her so she wants to see what the others are like as well.

"Welcome to the tower young mortal, I hope we shall get along well" Thor said walking over to Jo and patting her on the back what he thought was lightly but actually knocked her forwards so she had to stumble forward a few steps to stay upright.

"Hi Thor, I hope that too, though maybe you could call me Jo, I feel like young mortal is a little formal" Jo says holding her chest again, since the hit from Thor had made her ribs hurt again.

"Of course, young Jo, are you injured I did not intend to harm you with my greeting" Thor said looking concerned.

"No, you didn't do it don't worry, I just picked the wrong alley to stroll down after dark, I got away with all my stuff though so I count it as a win even if I did take a few hits" Jo said fiddling with the straps of her bag, glad she'd managed to hold onto it.

"Who would dare attack a young lady in such a manner, tell me their names and I shall bring down the wrath of all nine realms on them" Thor said striding towards the window looking ready to smash it. Jo didn't want him to go beating up the people who were probably just desperate and so she quickly jogged round getting in Thor's way, she held her hands out getting him to stop.

"NO THOR! No wrath, no bringing anything down on anyone, they were probably homeless and desperate I knew not to go down there, besides the cops can handle this sort of thing" Thor stops his charge looking down at the human in front of him who couldn't possibly physically stop him but he still obeyed her wishes, he respected her courage in trying to stop him. "Pinkie swear that you won't bring down any wrath" she said with a shy grin holding out her little finger too him. Upon seeing his confusion, she reached out and pulled his massive hand out folding all the fingers down and then pulling up the smallest one, before wrapping her own pinkie round his and tightening it giving his hand a slight shake before releasing him again.

"Is this a new form of contract, I had been led to believe that those of Midgard used paper and ink to form indentures" Thor said frowning and looking at his little finger that was still extended out from the others.

Before Jo could say anymore she realised that the room was silent, strange since before there had been the noise of the TV and the others chatting. She looked around Thor to see that even the famous Black Widow was staring at her incredulously. "What?" she said.

"You just got Thor to do a pinkie swear, and you jumped in front of him and actually got him to stop" Clint said sounding amazed, but Jo just smiled.

"What like it's hard? You know maybe you're just not a people person Clint" she said smirking at him before walking over to the kitchen to see what food there was for dinner.

"I am too" Clint whined mockingly and she just poked her tongue out at him.

"So, Stark has a kid and she's just as annoying as him, anything else or can we eat now" Natasha said appearing behind Jo and taking a plate of food of the counter wondering back to the couch.

"Why have you kept this hidden for so long Tony? She must be what 13…" Steve starts saying but Jo calls out over him.

"Hey! I'm 15 thank you very much and I'm right here you don't have to refer to me in the third person I'm not a kid" she said to him annoyed already.

"Sorry, 15" Steve began again still sounding annoyed but Tony held a hand up to stop him and explained again.

"I said I only found out recently, I met Sandy in a bar and we only spent the one night together back in 2000 but she never told me she was pregnant" Tony insisted looking annoyed that Steve would even imply that he would have left his only child if he'd known about her.

"My mom died a few days ago and I found the note he left for her and the pictures and I realized the truth. My friend Peter knew a way to get in contact with Tony and I managed to get in to see him an explained everything, he took me in because it was this or a foster home" Jo said her voice shaking as she barely kept back the tears. Talking about her mother made it feel as though her stomach was twisting and tying itself in knots, she took a deep breath to get herself back under control and walked to the couch sitting next to Natasha and taking a bite out of the spring roll from her plate with the other Chinese food.

"I'm sorry I didn't know about that I…" Steve stumbled over his words obviously not sure what to say now but Jo sniffed and decided to put him out of his misery.

"Don't worry you had no way of knowing just forget it, so what have you guys been doing today?" she said trying to move the topic on, Natasha seemed to be the most perceptive and picked up on what she was trying to do, she immediately launched into a rant at Tony about how her bracelets had been firing slightly to the left since he adjusted them. The distraction was a welcome one and the rest of the meal passed with the others chatting away and Jo staring into her food just enjoying the comfortable chatter surrounding her making her feel more at home. Her head jolted up suddenly when she heard Tony calling her and she saw that everyone else had left the room and it was just the two of them left.

"Everyone went to bed, they said goodnight but I don't think you heard them." He said softly.

"No, I was in my own world, sorry I didn't mean to be rude" she began but he waved away her apology.

"They'll get over it, are you ready for tomorrow? I've had the funeral arranged for 10am and Bruce has said he will come as well, the others offered but I thought you wouldn't want to many people around. Ned and Peter are going to meet us here and we will all go to the church together" Tony said looking into her eyes from his crouched position in front of her.

"I don't know, I just can't believe she's gone, she was just…" the rest of what he might have said was lost as a sob wracked through her. She began curling in on herself but suddenly Tony had sat next to her and like Peter had done initially he pulled her into his chest and sat with her as she sobbed, it was much more awkward than the hugs she used to get from her mother and she could tell he wasn't used to this sort of thing but the effect was instantaneous. It was like something in her cracked and she clung to Tony desperately as the grief washed over her and she could do nothing but cry, his arms around her though awkward and constantly fidgeting provided the comfort she needed and she was certain now that she could make it through this, before without her mother she felt lost but now she had someone in her life that cared again.

It took another 20 minutes before she pulled away again from him, he never even showed any sign of releasing her waiting until she began to pull away before he unwound his arms and sat back, she was surprised to see small tear-tracks on his face as well though she knew she must look a lot worse than him right now. The crying had made her chest start to hurt again and she tried to slow her breathing down again but Tony must have seen the wince because he pulled a bottle out of his pocket holding it to her.

"Bruce gave me these before he left, he suspected that it would hurt so he said you can take up to 3 a day to help with it" Tony said passing the bottle to her. She undid the bottle and dry swallowed one hoping it would take effect quickly.

"I think I'm just going to go to bed if that's ok?" she said yawning slightly and Tony stood offering his hand to her.

"Of course, come on I'll come up with you" he said pulling her to her feet carefully and they walk to the elevator together. Soon enough they were upstairs and she was just walking into her room when Tony called out.

"Goodnight Jo" Tony said.

"G'night Dad" Jo mumbled tiredly without thinking and went into her room missing the way that Tony's face was practically split in half by the grin that spread across it.


	10. Goodbye Mom

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N So the funeral now. I think it would make it better if you read this while listening to what I've been listening to as I write it, which is mainly two songs; "arms" by Christina Perri as well as some of her other songs and then Phillip Phillips songs particularly "Home". Also in Jo's speech I have used some Beau Taplin quotes and put ' ' around them so that everyone knows those are not my own words but I think her quotes are beautiful and thought that they fit this chapter perfectly._

Chapter 9

Jo woke up slowly the next morning she spent a while just lying in bed coming to terms with the fact that today is the day and that after the funeral it was final, her mother would be gone. She laid there wrapped in the duvet and tears slowly falling from the corners of her eyes down into her hair but she didn't cry, not properly. She'd done that last night, sobbed until she couldn't breathe and allowed Tony to hold her together but she couldn't do that again. Today she was going to make her mom proud and say goodbye the way she deserved, her mom wouldn't want her to be there sobbing at her graveside she would want her to go on, and be brave in this new chance at life she has ahead of her.

She was shaken from her thoughts by a knock on the door, Tony came in cautiously poking his head around the door and he must have seen the tears still slowly running down her face because he walked over to the bed and sat next to her. He leaned in wrapping his arms around her again and just like last night she could feel the instant calming effect he had on her, her breaths became shaky but she didn't fall apart again. She pulled away from him and smiled softly.

"I need to get dressed, what time is it?" she said looking outside at the sun that was already up in the sky.

"Almost 7:30 Ned and Peter are going to be here in an hour, I wanted to make sure you were up, I'm going to go get ready, I'll meet you outside at 7:20" Tony said and she mustered up a smile for him as he got up and left the room. Once he was gone the smile fell away, she forced herself up and walked over to the bathroom for a quick shower, and then she blow-dried her hair and pulled on the black trousers and blouse that had appeared in her cupboard. She guessed that Tony must have known she wouldn't have anything appropriate for a funeral, so she was grateful he had gotten some clothes for her though she could tell from the tags that they were more expensive than anything else she'd worn in the past. She looked in the mirror and was satisfied that she looked alright and headed from the room.

Tony was stood by the couch typing into his phone, he was wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, simple but she knew that it probably cost more than a year's rent on the apartment she used to share with her mom. He looked up when she came in and put the phone in the pocket of his suit jacket after typing one last thing, he tilted his head to the side clearly asking if she was ready and she nodded her reply. They went into the elevator and stood in silence waiting as it shot down taking them to the ground floor, she had expected that they would be going to the garage but instead he led her out a side exit into a small walled in area with a limo waiting there. She heard someone clearing their throat and turned startled to see Ned and Peter both waiting next to her both also wearing suits. She ran up wrapping an arm around each of them and pulled them in close, she knew that they weren't normally very comfortable with hugs but she could feel them both returning it and she used their comfort to give her the final push she needed so she could walk over to the limo and climb in.

The limo ride passed in a blur and before she knew it they were outside a church and the four of them got out, Bruce was already there waiting at the foot of the stairs and she saw Aunt May and Ned's parents as well waiting with him. Her mom had never had any real friends because she was always so busy working to make sure that Jo had everything she needed, and it really showed now, there were so few people at the funeral that they only had to use the front row to sit in but still her legs were shaking as she went up to the front to stand next to her mom's coffin and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket where she had written what she wanted to say.

"For all my life, it has been me and my mom, just us against the world and it was far from easy, when I was little mom tried to hide it from me and I never realised our life was out of the ordinary until I got older. I shouted at her and told her that she wasn't doing enough but all along she had been working day and night just to get me food and somewhere to live. As I've gotten older I know how hard it was for her and we could never do any big things like go on holiday or out for dinner even but the small things they made up for it, 'whoever said the small things don't matter has never seen a match start a wildfire' and truly she was amazing, she would sneak me home a candy bar or something for after school and even now at 15 she would still do that.

I couldn't believe it when I found out she was gone and I'm still trying to deal with it but I know that she wouldn't want me to sit around moping because she's gone. This may be the ending of my time with her but 'sunsets are proof that endings can be beautiful too' and the thing about sunsets is that they are followed by a sunrise and I'm sure now that the sun is coming up again soon. I'll always love and miss you mom, I can never tell you how grateful I am for what you have done for me but I have a feeling you knew anyway. Goodbye Mom" Jo finished feeling the tears streaming from her eyes but her voice stayed strong to the last word. She pressed her hand briefly to the wood of the coffin feeling the smooth lacquer and briefly closed her eyes saying goodbye privately in her head, before walking down the steps and sitting down in between Peter and Tony.

The vicar spoke briefly but she wasn't listening instead she stared blankly into the distance, only coming back down to earth when everyone around her stood and she went over to take hold of a corner of the coffin where Tony, Bruce and Peter had already taken the other corners, they slowly walked out of the church and down the steps. She helped as they lowered the coffin down into the ground and she throw in a handful of soil feeling the tears threatening to fall again but she kept them at bay. They hadn't arranged a wake since there was so few of them and instead she said goodbye to the others at the church and Peter & Ned went home with their families, watching them leaving until they were out of sight.

She turned back to Tony and Bruce who were stood side by side waiting for her then after one last glance at the church she got into the back of the limo and they pulled away going back to the tower. The rest of the ride passed as a blur and she sat staring out the window not really focussing on anything, Bruce and Tony stayed in silence as well clearly waiting to let her dictate what they were going to do. Once the limo had pulled back in she got out and went inside without waiting for the two men, instead she went straight to the lift and asked JARVIS to take her straight to the floor she shared with Tony, once there she ran to her bedroom door barely getting it shut behind her before the invisible dam she had constructed in her mind broke.

She sat against the door crying her whole body shaking with the force of her cries and she felt as though she was going to cry forever, this was worse than the night before because now it was final, her mom was gone and she had lost the only constant in her life. She dimly realised that her breaths were getting harsher and quicker, she was edging towards a panic attack and she could already feel the pain in her ribs flaring up again, it had been numb all day but the bruises to her chest and face were throbbing now as her crying made it worse. She didn't know how long it had been that she was crying before she heard a noise, looking up she saw someone emerging from the A/C vent up near the ceiling, whoever it was seemed at ease with this because they slid their torso out before flipping their legs out and landing on their feet in a crouch. Once they were stationary she recognized that it was Clint but what was he doing. Surely, he knew she wanted to be alone, but apparently it wasn't just him because he barely spared her a glance before he turned and caught someone who fell much more awkwardly nearly landing on their head. She recognized Tony instantly and once he had righted himself from where he landed in a heap he ran over and crouched in front of her.

"Jo, come here, it's going to be fine, don't worry I'm here, I'm not going anywhere" he murmured to her softly enough that Clint wouldn't hear it, what really surprised her was when Tony leaned in close and put his arms under her knees and back scooping her up with ease, he walked over and sat down on the bed against the headboard keeping her on his lap and like last night he held her as she cried. She continued to sob not able to stop but now she could feel a difference, he had just crawled through an air vent and nearly broken his neck and let her cry all over him all in a suit. He cared enough about her to do all of that and she knew now that she could make it through this, not on her own but with her dad. That is how she fell asleep that night in Tony's arms slowly drifting off unaware that Clint had long since left them in private and Bruce had been in and out to check on them several times, the last of which he removed their shoes and pulled a blanket over both of them since Tony was now softly snoring sat against the bed, hugging her to him even in his sleep.


	11. Place to Ourselves

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter sorry it was so emotional but it had to be done, things should be looking up for Jo now with some quality time together for her and Tony. And to Guest reviewer I really like that suggestion with the Audi I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing it soon, though I want to give them some good time together before they have any arguments because I feel they need to get closer first. Oh and I avoided mentioning to much of the plot of Ghostbusters because I didn't want to spoil it though I'm sure everyone who wants to has seen it by now._

Chapter 10

Jo woke up the next morning and couldn't remember at first where she was, it was warm and comfortable and she felt safe. She opened her eyes and realised she was in her room in the tower, she tried to roll over to get comfortable but realised that she wasn't alone, Tony was laying behind her snoring quietly and obviously still asleep, and he still had an arm wrapped around her. His suit was rumpled and he had somehow gotten his tie off in his sleep and the top few buttons of his shirt but he looked so relaxed. He always seemed guarded even when he is awake and seeing him like this made her trust him even more, she relaxed back allowing him to keep holding her but it seemed her fidgeting had woken him anyway because his snoring and deep breaths changed to a soft groan as he released her and rolled onto his back opening his eyes.

"Morning" he breathed sleepily "sorry I was going to go back to my bed but I guess I fell asleep here".

"It's ok, you didn't have to crawl through the vents you know, you've ruined your suit by the look of things" Jo said looking guiltily over at him.

"Jo, I'm your dad and I may have missed out on a lot of your life but I will be there for you now, I'm not going to let a vent or a ruined suit stop me, besides the vent was more Clint's idea anyway, he hung out of one and pulled me into it, I hadn't even thought of them as a way to get in anywhere." Tony said clearly not enjoying the fact that he had been forced to accept Clint's help.

"Well maybe he's a bit more useful than I thought but let's never tell him that" Jo said yawning before sitting up in the bed and sliding out letting her feet rest on the floor. She paused a moment before pushing to her feet and going through to the bathroom she went to the toilet quickly and then came back out to see that Tony had left, probably has to get back to work she guesses. She showers and changes into a pair of leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, then she walked back out into the small living room to see Tony hadn't left, he was sitting on the sofa with the TV on and had changed into a pair of black jeans and a black sabbath t-shirt.

"Hey, I thought you would be working or something" Jo said suddenly feeling a bit awkward, she didn't want to be keeping Tony from something.

"No, I thought we could spend today together, whatever you want to do, name it and we're doing it?" Tony said smiling at her.

"Umm I don't know, I rarely get to go to the cinema, so maybe we could go see a movie, and get lunch then this afternoon you can finish telling me about your Audi" Jo said not really wanting to do anything major but she though a quiet day with Tony would be nice.

"Sounds perfect, any movie in particular that you want?" Tony asked and Jo contemplated for a minute before replying.

"Well I had wanted to see the new Ghostbusters movie back when it came out but mom couldn't afford the ticket, but it's not even in cinema's anymore so we can't…" Jo thought aloud.

"Don't you worry about that I'll sort it, so Ghostbusters right?" Tony said a mischievous glint in his eye making Jo worried about what he was going to do.

"Yes" she said cautiously.

"J you can get on that and tell Happy to bring the car around" Tony said to his AI.

"Of course, Sir" JARVIS replied.

Jo soon found herself in the back of an Audi q7 with Tony and Happy who had barely said a word to her since she got in the car but she didn't mind that too much, she didn't feel much like trying to make friends. As she watched the streets go by through the window she realised that they seemed to be heading towards Times Square, she thought that they would probably go to a small cinema so that Tony could sneak in without being recognized, but they were pulling up outside AMC Empire 25 one of the biggest cinema's in New York. Happy pulled the car around to a smaller maintenance door.

"What are we doing here? Won't you get recognized by the people in the cinema?" Jo said feeling nervous because she didn't want them to get ambushed by press especially not today.

"Don't worry, I've got that covered come on" Tony said grinning and getting out of the car indicating for her to follow. They walked in together and he led her up a set of metal stairs most likely the fire exit and she was surprised when they walked straight into a cinema through the fire door next to the big screen. The cinema was completely empty and some of the seats in the middle had been cleared out leaving a popcorn machine and two very comfortable looking chairs. She turned to Tony with a massive grin.

"You did all this for me, how did you even get them to do this?" Jo said excitedly she had never even heard of this happening and she was looking around the cinema in amazement.

"It was nothing JARVIS transfers them some money and they clear out the cinema and play whatever I want and bring a popcorn machine in and they never even know who it is that's in here" Tony said sweeping his arm out towards the seats in the centre. "After you" he said.

Jo grinned even wider and ran up the edge of the cinema taking a running jump and landing in the chair nearest the popcorn machine, it was far more comfortable than the hard chairs the cinemas normally have, she sank all the way down into it relaxing for the first time in a while. Tony followed her more slowly and picked up the two popcorn buckets that had been left next to the machine and reached in filling both to the brim, then he passed one to Jo as he passed and sat down in the other chair.

"So how do they know when to play the movie?" Jo asked because if no-one was allowed to look in then how would they know when they are ready. Tony had the answer for that when he showed her his phone he had a text on it that just said 'GO' and he held it out to her so she could press send. As soon as she did the lights dimmed and the screen lit up with the opening scenes of the movie, she sat back and prepared herself for the cinema experience she had been clearly missing out on.

Two hours later and Jo was sat in the chair with her legs thrown over the side of the chair and she was practically lying down as she watched the Ghostbusters defeat the ghost army. The credits begin rolling and she sits up slowly still immersed in the movie and turns to see Tony who looks as though he enjoyed it as well.

"So, what did you think?" she asks him.

"It was a good movie, though I am going to be watching for anyone trying to replicate that we have a hard-enough time with the current baddies let alone introducing dinosaurs into the mix." Tony said laughing but Jo could see the seriousness in his eyes at the same time.

"Well the receptionist looks weirdly like Thor if he dressed more hipster and cut his hair" Jo joked with a laugh, and Tony considered it for a second.

"I thought he looked familiar, maybe we should try and get Thor to watch it, though then again last time he watched TV he ordered the people in there to respond to him and then smashed it with his hammer" Tony said and Jo clutched at her stomach because she was laughing so hard she didn't know Thor that well yet but from what she knew she could definitely imagine that happening.

They walked together back down the stairs to the door and Jo was surprised to not see Happy waiting for them and turned to Tony confused.

"What you can't walk two blocks? We're going to a burger place around the corner for lunch now" he said to her smirking at her confused look and sauntering off up the street leaving her to jog to catch up to him.

"I used to walk everywhere but I figured that you probably got driven around everywhere" she said poking her tongue out at him because of him joking with her. They walked together up the street, it seemed very quiet for central New York but Jo rarely came here except for New Year's Eve and other big events so this is probably normal for this time of day. They reached the restaurant after only a few minutes and the waiter saw Tony and immediately led them through to a private booth in the back, he gave them both a menu and after an awkward moment where Jo thought the man may actually bow to them he walked away to stand back by the entrance looking terrified. Jo looked down at the menu and couldn't help her eyes widening slightly at the prices of the food, Tony doesn't seem to notice her surprise and she looks through the menu for the cheapest thing.

"What do you want?" Tony asked her noticing she'd been silent since they came in.

"Umm, I could just have some fries…" Jo trailed off not sure how to explain her shock at the prices.

"What's up, aren't you hungry, come on Jo I can't read people like Nat you're going to have to talk to me" Tony said.

"It's just, it's all like $30 or more just for one meal and I can barely afford Burger King normally, and I don't know it's just a lot" Jo said feeling herself being sucked back into her memories of her mom.

"I know this is strange for you but trust me, you are my daughter and it's not that I'm trying to be better than your mom or anything like that, I wish that I could go back in time and have known about you since you were born but I can't so now I am going to do everything I can for you which includes as many expensive burgers as you want, so come on what do you want anything on the menu and you're having dessert too." Tony said to her having leaned into say it quietly because he didn't want any of the other patrons to overhear their conversation.

"Ok, well then I want the barbeque beef burger and the cookie dough ice cream sundae" Jo said smiling at Tony who smiled back before waving to the waiter who came scurrying back to take their order. Tony ordered for both of them and the waiter did bow this time causing Tony to scoff a laugh once the man had gone back into the kitchen.

"I'll never get over that" Tony said about the poor waiter who was still shaking when he came back out of the kitchen with someone else's order. While they wait they talk about the movie and Tony picks holes in the technology they were talking about, it only takes about 10 minutes for their food to come out and Jo is pretty sure that the chefs had probably dropped everything else in favour of cooking their order. The burger was the best Jo had ever had and she groaned with each mouthful of food, much to Tony's amusement, it was just so good, and almost as soon as she had eaten the last fry her plate was whisked away and replaced by her sundae which was equally as good.

They left the restaurant after about an hour and this time they were met by Happy he greeted them with a nod as they slid into the back and began the drive back to the tower. Jo didn't think she would enjoy spending time with Tony as much as she has but she had, and she was feeling a lot better than she did yesterday. They approached the tower and she truly felt like she was going home, and with someone who she never imagined she would have in her life, her father.


	12. Glitter Arrows

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N Ok I just want to say I am aware that Jo wouldn't be able to draw Clint's bow because the poundage is likely at least 40lbs and I do archery myself so I know how hard that would be too draw, but for the plotline I want to do I have ignored this and made her able to do it, this isn't saying she is as strong as Clint, so yeah sorry if that makes it annoying to people but I needed it this way. And I am basing the communal floors layout on what I can see in Age of Ultron so hopefully it'll make sense. Hope everyone enjoys, please read and review_

Chapter 11

Jo and Tony spent the next few days together, he let her loose playing with his Audi and his other cars and she had spent hours playing around with them, Tony had only made her promise never to drive them until he had taught her how to drive and he was satisfied. She also started making some of her own things using the equipment in Tony's lab, she had always liked to play around with tech but now with free reign on such sophisticated gadgets she was in her element. Her first thing that she made was purely to get back at Clint. The archer had rigged it so that glitter exploded out at her when she opened the fridge one morning and she had screamed when it happened causing Bruce and Tony to come running in to find her covered in glitter holding a carton of milk, and they were the complete opposite of what she was hoping for and she yelled at them to get out because they were laughing so hard but instead she had to make the walk of shame back to her room leaving a trail of glitter as she went.

She was determined to get back at him for that and it had to be something good, she ideally wanted it to be when the entire team would see him. Her plan was to wait for the team dinner tonight which her dad had said she was welcome to join them for but she is going to make a strategically late entrance. She wanted this prank to unique and personal to him so with a bit of help from Tony who was sworn to secrecy she had made arrows that would explode with glitter once they hit their target, they had foam-coated rubber tips so that they wouldn't actually hurt him and the entire shaft was made of glitter with a very thin film of plastic that would disintegrate and a very small amount of dried iodine triiodide in the centre so they would explode when they hit the person, it had taken a while to work out a way to make them stable enough so they wouldn't blow up while she was loading and firing them but she had finally gotten it right. She made some dud ones to practice firing them and now she just needed the bow to get away with this.

There was only a couple of hours until they were supposed to meeting for dinner and JARVIS had just confirmed for her that Clint had finally left the range but he had moved to his gym only just up the corridor but the bow was still in the range. She had looked over the plans off the tower and figured out the fastest route from her room to the range and so she set off, she planned to just walk straight in but when she got there she realised that may be difficult because she could hear Clint and Natasha sparring in the gym and she knew they would hear her if she just walked up the corridor. It was going to have to be plan B, she looked up at the panel for the vents, it was at least 6 feet up the wall and nothing for her to hold onto below it so she was going to need something to climb on.

Looking around she grinned as she saw a door open, up the corridor and she jogged over lightly (she was only in her socks so that she would make as little noise as possible while moving around) and went in glad to see a small table that would be perfect. She hefted it up resting it against her stomach and staggered slightly under the weight but managed to force her way on and as quietly as possible she put it down below the vent. She scrambled up onto it and stood carefully on it her face now level with the vent, she got out the screwdriver she had brought with her and unscrewed the panel gently placing it down on the table next to her and slipping the screws and screwdriver into her pocket so she could find them again. With one last look at the door behind which the two master assassins were fighting she boosted herself up and slid into the vent head first.

It smelled surprisingly fresh for inside a vent and it was almost as though Tony had them built to be large enough for a person to move around in, brushing her thoughts aside she kept going until she found the right panel, seeing no alternative she spun around so her feet were facing the panel and paused just before kicking it. "Hey, JARVIS you there?" she whispered.

"Yes Miss" JARVIS replied much quieter than he usually does so she guesses he is backing her up in this which may come in handy.

"How good is the sound-proofing in here?" she asked indicating towards the range even though she was pretty sure the AI couldn't see her.

"Sir had the range made completely sound-proof no one will hear what you are about to do, whatever it may be Miss" JARVIS replied conspiratorially.

"Good" Jo muttered more to herself than anyone else before she gave the panel three hard kicks in quick succession and the panel went flying with a clatter across the room. She turned onto her stomach and lowered herself down onto the floor mindful that she wasn't about to step on something. Turning around to face the room she was amazed, the range had not only normal archery targets that were strung up so they swung around the room, it had multiple levels of perches and it appeared as though there was a set up similar to skeet shooting so that things could be fired into the air and shot down. She was jolted from her thoughts by JARVIS.

"Miss, I should advice that Miss Romanoff and Mister Barton appear to be tiring I would advise that you speed up whatever you plan to do" J said. She quickly ran to the centre of the room where Clint's bow was sat on a holder with a spotlight shining on it.

'Jeez obsessed much' Jo thought, but she didn't have time for that and so she snatched up the bow slinging it around her body with the string down her front. She ran back to the vent opening and knew she wouldn't be able to put the panel back on so she was just going to have to hope that Clint didn't come in here before the dinner. The vent in here was only about 5 feet of the ground and so with a running jump she managed to get her elbows up and into the vent giving her enough grip to pull herself up and in. She crawled back through as quickly as she could and dropped back onto the table, and grabbed the panel screwing it back on as quickly as she could and then jumped off the table. Just as she had put everything back where it was she realised that there was no more noise coming from the gym and the two assassins had stopped sparring and could come out at any minute. She forgot about being quiet now because she couldn't be caught here with Clint's bow wrapped around her so she turned and ran up the corridor and didn't stop running until she was back in her room with the door locked behind her, she collapsed onto her bed completely out of breath because she had taken the stairs 5 flights up to avoid being caught in the elevator and she knew no-one used the stairs normally so she would be safe in them.

After a few minutes just lying face down on her bed breathing hard she finally sat up and pulled the bow from around her and held it in her hands. She played around with it for a bit getting used to the feeling of drawing it back, she had watched a few videos earlier today so she knew at least vaguely what she was doing with it. Once she felt comfortable she got the dud arrows out that she had made and the target she had made to practice on and save her wall from dents. She nocked the first arrow and drew the string back loosing it and by some miracle she hit the centre on her first shot, she repeated it a few times and though she never got the centre again she felt confident that she could hit Clint at the close range she would be once she came up to dinner.

"J, what time is it?" Jo asked.

"5pm Miss, Captain Rogers friends Mister Wilson has arrived and is cooking already, I would estimate he will be done by 5:30" JARVIS replied instantly. Jo started to feel anxious because she knew she didn't have much time and what she was about to do some may consider ridiculously stupid since Clint could decide to kill her. She was committed to it now though and so she got in a few more practice shots before getting the glitter arrows and loading them into a small quiver she had made to hang on her hip, she only had 4 of the glitter arrows but she wanted to use them all to get maximum coverage.

5:30 finally arrived and JARVIS confirmed that everyone was downstairs on the communal floor, she took a deep breath and knew she was ready. She got in the elevator and told JARVIS to take her to the communal floor where she knew the others would have already be on the couches for the meal and everyone would be waiting for her. She got the bow ready in her hands and nocked the first arrow so she was ready as soon as the doors opened, the soft ping sounded and the doors slid open allowing her to stalk silently forwards, Bruce was the only one to spot her at first and she winked at him looking over at Clint hoping Bruce would stay quiet which luckily, he did. She silently creeped up the stairs towards the square of couches where they were all sat together. The sound of her drawing the string back was enough for Clint to realise she was there but she had released the arrow before he could do anything and it hit his shoulder. The arrow did exactly what she wanted it to and with a loud popping noise it exploded with glitter that coated him and the surrounding area, he turned around on the couch to face her fully but seemed too shocked to do anything yet. She fired the remaining three arrows as quickly as she could each on hitting home and Clint was now completely coated in glitter, good thing she'd added an adhesive to the glitter because it was all sticking to him and even some of it to Thor who happened to be sitting next to her victim. The room was stunned into silence everyone taking turns either looking at her still stood there holding Clint's bow or Clint who is sat on the couch looking like he's just got back from a mission to Mardi Gras.

It was Natasha who first broke the silence when she began laughing at Clint and soon the rest of the team joined in. "I told you she wouldn't just let you get away with the fridge prank" Natasha said through her laughing. Jo lowered the bow and started chuckling slightly so happy that her plan had worked, but her laughing was soon replaced by a look of fear as Clint slowly rose to his feet. Underneath the layers of glitter, she could tell that he was fuming, she had just embarrassed him in front of the whole team, and he was now slowly started stalking towards her. She stumbled backwards away from him realising this may have been a bad idea but the other avengers were still laughing so she was pretty sure Clint wouldn't kill her at least. Not feeling like taking the chance she unclipped the quiver from her waist and dropped that and the bow onto the floor with a clatter, the noise of his bow hitting the floor seemed to spur Clint on and he broke from his initial shock and strode towards her.

Seeing that her time was up she turned and ran, she went down the stairs as quickly as she could and skidded slightly on the corner since she was still only wearing socks, but she managed to turn the corner and ran towards the bar hearing Clint was hot on her heels. She couldn't think of anything else to do and so she vaulted herself over the bar landing on her feet behind it and turned coming face to face with the fuming glitter covered assassin, she couldn't quite believe this was her life now but no time to think about it. She faked as if she was running towards the elevator but turned at the last second once Clint had started in that direction and ran over to the other set of stairs that led back up to the seating area she knew Clint was right behind her still and so she went for a bold move and didn't even pause in her stride when she got to the couches. Instead she leaped over the back of the couch onto the tables in the middle, Tony only just ducking in time, she ran across the table somehow managing to avoid all of the food on it and leaped over the other side of the couches. She realised Clint had stopped on the other side not following her through the middle and so she paused standing behind Thor and turned to look at him. The glitter hadn't been shaken lose at all by the running and despite how out of breath she was she laughed again at him. A brief hope came over her that he might be going to let it go but as it turns out he just was trying to catch her off guard. Without warning he jumped over the couch and followed her route across the table.

"Come on Clint you know you deserved it, just leave her alone" Tony said between laughs but it did nothing to deter Clint, so Jo ran again, back down the same stairs as before but this time she turned left at the bottom of the stairs running towards the windows. It ended up in a flat-out spring along the top platform, there was nothing for her to hide behind and she knew Clint was gaining on her. He would definitely catch her but her adrenaline fuelled mind had an idea, not giving herself time to think about it she turned towards the railing that ran along the edge of the platform behind which there was a slanted wall leading down to a lower platform, she put her hands on the railing and jumped trying to get her legs up and over it but her foot caught on the railing and her plan to gracefully slide down the slope failed miserably leaving her rolling down the slope head over heels coming to a stop at the bottom in a pile of limbs. As she rolled she heard shouts of alarm from the others and realised they probably didn't expect her to go this far to avoid the archer, but now the room had fallen silent again. She sat up and looked at glitter Clint who was leaning over the railing looking down at her concern clear on his face and she knew they all thought she was hurt, which though her shoulder was a bit sore it was nothing serious. She decided to use this to her advantage, she rolled to her feet and ran up the stairs next to her, back to the seating areas with the others in and collapsed down to sit between Bruce and Tony.

"Did I win, I feel like I won" she said breathlessly grinning at the two men.

"This isn't over" Clint said pointing at her from where he was still stood by the windows, before walking over to the elevator, snatching his bow up from the floor and clearly admitting defeat, he went to change. As soon as the doors closed the room erupted into laughter and Jo joined in laughing so hard she thought she might burst.

"Nicely executed, though next time I say we add some feathers to the mix as well for the bird-brain" Tony said still laughing.

"He'll get back at you for that you know that right, I hope you know what you've gotten yourself in for" Natasha says to her looking serious now.

"I accept the challenge don't worry about that, just next time I won't get my foot caught when making the getaway" Jo says wincing slightly as she rubs at her shoulder which had taken most of the impact when she rolled. Before she even realised anyone had moved the man she had yet to meet had come back over to them with an ice pack in his hands which he lightly threw to her, she caught it and held it to her sore shoulder. "Sorry but you are?" she said.

"Sam Wilson, I came around to cook tonight because apparently even though they can take on armies and supervillains none of these knuckleheads know how to cook." Sam said smirking.

"Seriously none of you, I'm 15 and I know how to cook, what do you guys live off take-out" Jo said and the others shrugged.

"Hey, I usually just hire a chef or the whole restaurant" Tony said and she turned to glare at him but everyone knew she was only kidding around.

"Well nice to meet you Sam I'm Johanna Reid" she felt Tony stiffen slightly when she introduced herself with her mother's name but that had always been her name and she wasn't going to change it straight away. "But I am thinking about hyphenating it to Reid-Stark" she said looking over at Tony who smiled and she felt the tension leave him again. When she looked back towards Sam she saw the dawning realisation on his face.

"So you're the one Steve was telling me about, sorry I wasn't here the other day when you met everyone but I still work at the VA sometimes and that was one of those nights." Sam said and she smiled at him.

"Don't worry, I'm still getting used to all this so one more person isn't going to make much difference" she said to him.

Soon enough everyone broke off and started chatting in smaller groups and they got through the food Sam had prepared with surprising speed, she couldn't help but stare at Steve and Thor who both easily put away 5 times as much as her and didn't even look full yet. Tony had explained to her about their high metabolisms the other day and she knew that Peter eats a lot because of his metabolism but witnessing two guys putting away quite that much food seemed surreal. Clint returned about half an hour after he originally left and she nearly fell of the sofa from laughing so hard when she was him because though his clothes were now glitter free his hands and face still were about 50% covered by glitter. The others soon joined in her laughing and Clint stared at her angrily for the rest of the night clearly sulking because she had gotten him back.

By the time it got to about 11pm the others were now relaxing on the couches laughing and joking together, she had mostly stopped joining in with the conversation because she was getting tired. She normally went to bed about 10 which wasn't very cool obviously for a 15-year-old but she was used to it and her mom had always gone to bed then as well. So now she could feel herself flagging, while the others were teasing Clint and making up various glitter related puns she had curled up against the arm of the couch. Bruce had moved to the other couch to sit nearer to Natasha and left his jacket behind which she was now using as a pillow. She lay on her side just watching her new family and she felt completely at ease around them, her eyes drifted shut and she didn't try to fight it, soon falling asleep.

The next thing she became aware of was the feeling of being lifted up, her mom hadn't carried her around since she was a little kid so she started to panic slightly wondering who was holding her but her dad's voice came from next to her ear.

"It's alright Jo you fell asleep on the couch I'm just moving you to your bed, you can go back to sleep" he murmurs and she relaxes again feeling safe with him. He gently deposits her onto her bed and just like that she drifted off to sleep again, almost certain she felt a kiss on her forehead just before she slipped off.


	13. Who is this kid?

Johanna Reid nay Stark

 _A/N So I know it's been a very long time since I last updated this but I have had a busy year and though I've been writing throughout and now have a lot of stories accumulated I haven't felt like they were good enough to post yet, but hopefully I'll have more coming out in the coming months._

 _I feel I should put a warning on this chapter for bullying and mentions of depression, it's nothing too heavy but I don't want anyone to accidentally read it if it is potentially a trigger for them, so just advanced heads up for this chapter and as usual I'm getting nothing from this except enjoyment._

Chapter 12

The next morning, Jo showers and goes down to the communal floor for breakfast, finally she is starting to feel more at home in the tower and she decides she's going to do something nice for the others since they've been so nice to her. She starts pulling out the ingredients for waffles and is rifling through the cupboards for the waffle maker, she had seen it the other day on the counter, so she knew there was one but where it was now would be a completely different matter now. After opening nearly every cupboard in the kitchen area she at last saw it, but it was on the top shelf right at the back, she glanced around and saw no-one was around and there wasn't a stool or anything for her to drag over so there was only one thing for it. She jumped and managed to get up, so she was on her knees on the counter, she grabbed hold of the top shelf with one hand and used the other to grab the waffle maker, the problem came when she pulled it free of the cupboard, swinging her arm back in triumph at getting it down by herself. The weight of the machine was more than she expected, and she began to fall backwards, her frantic grab for the cupboards wasn't enough and she would have fallen to the floor if it hadn't been for someone appearing behind her just in time and catching her, they awkwardly set her back on the floor and she turned to see Steve there looking concerned.

"What were you doing up there, you could have gotten hurt" Steve demanded, and she could see the team dad that side of Steve that Tony had told her about.

"I was going to make waffles for everyone, but I couldn't reach the waffle maker, sorry I was trying to be nice" Jo trailed off looking up and seeing the clear panic in Steve's eyes. "You actually panicked just then didn't you, Steve I'm touched that you care that much but I'm fine, no threats here just making waffles you can help me if you want?" Jo offered, and she could see the tension leaving his shoulders and he finally comes back from alert mode. It had never occurred to her that this sort of thing would happen, the other avengers probably do it as well, Steve had honestly looked battle ready when the only danger was a slightly unwieldy waffle maker and a precarious position, she made a mental note to watch out for any of the others slipping into this sort of mode.

"I'd love to help, but I've never even eaten waffles, so I don't know if I'll be much help" Steve said, and she couldn't help the gasp that escaped.

"I cannot allow you to continue living such a tragic waffle free half-life, you find a wooden spoon and a big bowl, and I'll start weighing out the ingredients" Jo said with a grin spreading across her face and she was proud to see one on Steve's face as well granted a bit more timid and confused than hers.

Together they made the batter with her doing most of the work while Steve watched fascinated by the whole process since waffles were not known about in the US when Steve was a child and there hadn't been much time for introducing him to them since he had woken up from the ice. Once the first batch was done Jo turned to Steve and held out the plate with the two waffles on them and offered the plate to him bowing theatrically.

"It is time for your life to become complete" she said rounding it off with a laugh and handing him the bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup. She got the next batch going and then turned to watch as he poured the syrup on and carefully cut a piece of and raised it to his mouth. He chewed, and she watched as the smile from before returned but this time it was more natural, and she knew that he liked them.

"Oh wow, why does Thor waste time with Pop Tarts when these exist, they're perfect slightly crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy inside" Steve said moaning slightly at the flavour and she laughed again, her laugh was cut off though by a booming voice coming from the direction of the lift making them both jump.

"How dare you insult the perfect pastry that is second to none, I will not stand by as such claims are being made" Thor boomed as he walked over to the kitchen still dressed in his pyjamas, which were made up of tie-dye cotton trousers and a long sleeve white shirt with buttons going half way down the front. Steve was about to open his mouth to defend himself, but a soft ping sounded from the waffle maker and so Jo opened it and carefully lifted the next two waffles out onto a plate.

"Waffles Thor, Steve had never tried them, and I have to agree they are far better than Pop Tarts" Jo said, and she held out the plate to Thor who scowled at both of them before taking the plate and sitting next to Steve at the island counter in the centre. He skipped the cutlery and instead just picked one of them up and took a large bite out of it, as he chewed the scowl on his face relaxed slightly and he took another bite of the waffle.

"You like them then?" Jo cautiously enquired, and Thor swallowed so he could reply.

"They are enjoyable though I still stand by that Pop Tarts are exceptional in every way" Thor said but he shoved the rest of the waffle into his mouth and so Jo knew he was lying about just finding them enjoyable. She smiled to herself and turned around to get the next batch going.

She ended up having to repeat the process many more times as the rest of the avengers came in and Thor and Steve together managed to eat at least 30 waffles, finally an hour after she started making them, she got her first taste of the waffles. She put the final 2 on her plate and reached for the bottle of syrup that was of course empty, but she didn't really mind because she had always used to have waffles with just a sprinkle of sugar on them.

"Jo, I need to talk to you this morning" Tony's voice came from next to her and she turned to face him, he had come in about 20 minutes ago looking exhausted and had poured himself some coffee and accepted the plate of waffles Jo pushed into his hand.

"What about?" she asked.

"Your school has been phoning to ask when you are coming back, they don't know it's me you are living with or that you are living here, but you are going to have to go back to school yet." Tony says looking carefully into her eyes to watch her reaction.

"I want to keep it that way, no offence but people knowing I live here is bound to draw the kind of attention I don't want, I can go back today, I'm as ready as I'll ever be" Jo said honestly.

"I figured as much, I've arranged it so that though I am listed as your official guardian on the school's record but only a few people will know about it and they have signed a non-disclosure agreement, so they can't go around blabbing about it. Happy is going to drop you in this morning." Tony said before getting up to go back to his labs. Jo sighed once he was gone and finished her pancakes, she said goodbye to the others who all waved or said goodbye in return and with that she went up to her room to get her bag and get together her school stuff together in time to meet Happy downstairs.

The ride to Midtown High passed in silence and so she used the time to check her phone, seeing several texts from Ned and Peter she drops them both a message to say that she is coming into school today and feels a warm feeling spread though her chest when they both reply within seconds to say they'll be waiting outside for her. They are true to their word as well and are sitting on the wall that goes around the edge of the car park when Happy pulls in, she gets out saying a quick thanks to the man who just grumbles something back before she jumps out and runs over to her friends immediately wrapping an arm around each of their necks and practically melts against them when they return the hug.

"Oh god I missed you guys, I'm sorry I have been so distant Pete I saw the news this morning, are you alright?" Jo rambled, making sure to keep the last part quiet so no-one would overhear.

"I'm fine, bruises already healed overnight, and I stopped them from hurting any civilians, never mind that, how are you? Ready to be back in this hell-hole" Peter said only half-joking.

"Has it been bad then, I know Flash is always an ass, but I thought he was getting better" Jo said looking between the faces of her two best friends, she could see that it must have been rough.

"He has been particularly bad the last week, he seems to be amped up about something and with you gone he doesn't seem to care, I've tried to take most of the hits, but it would look suspicious if I fought back" Peter said looking as though he was blaming himself for Ned getting hurt, but she knows he would have done anything he could.

"Pete it's fine, I'm back maybe if we all stick together, he'll back off, he usually doesn't like to hit a girl, so it should be better with me back" Jo says grimly but even she isn't sure how much truth there is to her words. The bell goes, and they jump ending their conversation as they all dash for their first class.

The day passes like most others, she goes to her classes and the teachers seem pleased to see her back in class, but none of them comment on her return which she is grateful for, at lunch Flash is nowhere to be seen and the three of them sit together chatting happily about what had been happening while Jo hadn't been at school. Her afternoon classes were much of the same, just taking notes and listening as the teachers droned on about things she already understood. The final bell rang, and she packed her things back into her rucksack and slung it over her shoulder before walking out with Ned and Peter on either side of her. They were almost out the gate when she heard Flash's voice.

"Trying to sneak out are we, just because you're back together again don't think you're gonna get away so easily" Flash said and the three of them turned to see that he was backed up by 5 of his goons. Jo felt her heart speeding up as they approached and her and Peter automatically stepped forwards protecting Ned. By now it was an automatic response for Peter and her, they had always naturally been protective of Ned, because before they knew him he had been beaten up every day and still couldn't bring himself to stand up to the bullies, at one point becoming extremely depressed and they both refused to let him go back down that dark path again.

"Just leave us alone Flash" Jo said firmly hoping Flash would leave but she knew that was unlikely, and as she had expected he ignored her continuing to approach them.

"And why would I do that when my favourite punching bags are all lined up and ready" Flash taunted, and Jo could almost sense the flinch that came from Ned at those words.

"Why do you feel the need to do this Flash, what could you get from treating people like this, it just makes everyone see you as a coward, beating up those who can't fight back" Jo said, knowing her words were useless but they were all she really had, other than the tricks she'd used on those thugs back in that alley but there were too many of them and she knew they would just get more mad if she fought back.

"Shut it Josie" Flash spat at her and she didn't bother to correct him on her name since she knew he just did it to get a rise out of her. Flash was of course the first one to take a swing and he hit Peter straight across the face knocking him backwards, but Ned caught him preventing him from falling over completely.

"Peter" Jo cried out on reflex and she jumped in front of Flash to give Peter time to recover, but Flash was already going in for the next swing and his fist caught her full force into her left eye, she fell to the ground ending up face down, dazed from the blow. By the time she recovered enough to push herself to her feet Flash had already walked away and she could see his goons laughing and patting him on the back. She looked over to see Peter cupping his cheek with his hands and carefully moving his jaw side to side, Ned was stood in front of her offering his hand down to her. She took the hand and Ned pulled her to her feet, almost as soon as she was upright the pain in her head increased tenfold and she swayed dangerously, almost ending up on the floor again if it wasn't for Ned shoving her onto a nearby bench. She sat there holding her head in her hands and couldn't believe that after all that had changed in her life she was still here, getting beaten up by brutes who don't have two neurons in their craniums to knock together. No point dwelling on it though, she had dealt with this for years now and, so she pulled her backpack off her back and got out a packet of tissues and pulled one out using one to wipe away the tears that had leaked out and then she used it to put pressure on the small cut that she could feel trickling blood from just above her left eyebrow.

"I could have taken it Jo, you didn't have to get in the way" Peter said, and she looked up to see that both him and Ned were standing in front of her, Peter even looked guilty as though this was in some way his fault.

"No Pete, it wasn't your fault, it's Flash, him and his entourage, we better get going I texted Tony to say I would get the subway back, but he said I've only got an hour to get back before he sends out a search party" Jo said a slight smile coming onto her face as she mentioned Tony which didn't go unnoticed by the two.

Jo said goodbye to Ned and Peter once they got to the subway station, the two of them getting on the train heading for Queens and her heading for the Tower, on the train she caught a glimpse of herself in the window and realised suddenly that this was likely not going to go down well with Tony. When it had first started happening her mom had wanted to storm down to the school, it took hours to talk her down, but she still had to hide just how bad it was from her mom, even though she knew she was just trying to help. If her mom had been like that she could only imagine what Tony would be like considering he had turned up in the suit when she got mugged, and that really wouldn't help her low profile if he did that now. She rummaged in her bag and found an old beanie in one of the pockets, it was October now so technically cold enough, but it may still look a bit strange. She pulled the beanie onto her head, so it was on her eyebrows covering the cut, it looked a bit weird and didn't cover the already forming bruise, but it would do to get her by anyone she might run into, so she could get to her room for the night, hopefully.

Her stop came all too soon, and she hopped out onto the platform, walking up onto the street, it was just over an hour since school finished as she walked into the tower, but she was sure Tony wouldn't have really sent anyone out after her. Once in the elevator she greeted JARVIS and asked him to take her to the floor she shared with Tony, once the elevator began moving she took the moment to rest against the wall, starting to feel dizzy again from the blow, maybe she should let someone know what happened in case the head injury was worse than she thought.

"You have arrived Miss" JARVIS made her jump and she looked up to see the elevator doors were open and indeed she was looking out onto her floor, she pushed off the wall and made straight for her room shutting the door behind her and dropping her bag and pulling the beanie off.

"Sir would like you to know that you have made it by the 'skin of your teeth' and that he wants you to join him and the others for dinner on the communal floor in half an hour." she laughed slightly at the AI's long-suffering tone.

"Ok J tell him I'll be there" she said, but she was going to have to come up with something, but not for a minute, she really wanted to lie down for a minute first. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.

Half an hour later she jolted awake to JARVIS setting off a deafening alarm that caused her to jolt upright and groan shouting for him to shut it off.

"My apologies Miss but Sir instructed me to use the alarm since dinner is prepared downstairs and you were not responding to any other methods of waking you that I can employ short of setting of the sprinklers" JARVIS said in his usual calm tone, but the final bit did certainly get her moving because she didn't particularly want to get soaked. She sat up and the pain in her head came back with a vengeance making her clutch onto her head waiting for it to die down to a more tolerable level. She then got up and walked quickly into the bathroom, looking in the mirror she saw that her eft eye was now a dark red and was already starting to bruise, she pulled the beanie from earlier back on and did some experimenting until she found a position that covered the cut and shaded her eye, she had never been one for make-up so she didn't have any better options to cover it and so with that thought she headed for the elevator.

The doors to the elevator opened revealing the communal floor and Jo instinctively ducked her head, she had done this every time with her mother and always made the excuse of not feeling well and wanting to go to bed early so hopefully that would work here too. She walked up to the sofas and a quick glance at the table revealed that it was spaghetti with cheese and pesto and garlic bread for dinner tonight. She wasn't too bothered about the food though, her bigger issue was the avengers sat around on the sofas, they had all looked up when she came in and the initial smiles of greeting changed quickly to looks of confusion.

"Nice hat, bad hair day or something?" Clint said, and she didn't even bother to reply to him, though she did smile slightly when she heard Natasha slap him upside the head. She sat down on the left-hand side of the sofa so that her eye was out of view of as many of them as possible and she subconsciously pulled her hair over the eye.

"So how was your day?" Tony asked her around a mouthful of garlic bread.

"Fine, got a lot of work to catch up on but it shouldn't take too long since I taught myself most of it already" she said quietly, and Tony laughed slightly.

"Well of course, my daughter would be a genius, but me and Bruce can always help you with anything if you need it" Tony said smiling at her and she half-heartedly returned it before the room dropped back into silence again.

The others begin to chat to each other quietly and she can tell that they know something is up, but there's not much she can do now. She picks up a plate of spaghetti and takes some garlic bread of the table in the centre, once the plate is resting on her lap she takes a bite of the garlic bread, the motion of chewing makes the pain in her head worse and by the time she's chewed it up enough to swallow she can feel tears building in her eyes. One escapes her eyelashes and rolls down her face, she quickly reaches up to wipe it away and sniffs quietly hoping no-one is paying attention but of course Bruce was watching her from across the table and is now staring straight at her with his eyebrows pulled close together in a frown.

"Jo, you alright?" Bruce asks quietly probably hoping to avoid drawing everyone's attention, but the room falls silent anyway and all eyes are on her just as another tear rolls down her cheek from the pain, she wipes it away and puts the garlic bread down on her plate.

"I'm fine, it's alright everyone can go back to what they were doing" she says more forcefully than she intended but it doesn't seem to have had any effect as they are all still looking at her, it's Natasha who speaks first though

"Jo, I know the others haven't noticed yet, but I saw it as soon as you came in, so you can lose the hat, you don't have to hide it" Natasha said plainly with no emotion in her voice, but Jo still felt her stomach twist when she realised that she was going to have to reveal how weak she was to all of them now.

"Really, it's fine, I can handle it" she said and got up to leave again but the glare she got from Natasha had her sitting down again, also her head had started to spin again when she got up and, so she probably wouldn't have gotten very far anyway.

"What's she talking about Jo?" Tony asked from his position next to her on the sofa and Jo huffed knowing it was going to be revealed one way or another. She pulled the hat off and tucked her hair behind her ear revealing her black eye the has probably gotten worse than when she last looked at it, the room that was quiet before was now silent.

"It's nothing I handle it on my own…" she started rambling and went to get up wanting out of the room, she made it a few steps before the pain in her head spiked, she froze and felt herself beginning to sway. Just as she was about to reach her hand out to hold onto something she heard someone stand next to her and hands took hold of her arm pushing her into the spot they had just vacated on the couch, she could feel the warmth that was left behind on the leather and she immediately sank back into the chair letting the pounding behind her eye settle down again. After a minute or two she opened her eyes again and saw Bruce kneeling in front of her, the others all still sat where they had been before, but everyone was facing her now.

"Are you still feeling dizzy?" Bruce said as he pulled out his phone and turned the light on the back of it on.

"A bit, it's worse when I stand up" Jo admitted quietly, her hand coming up instinctively to block the light from Bruce's phone. He pushes it down again though and he shines it directly into her eyes checking the pupil reaction no doubt, he seems satisfied with whatever he sees because he sits back on his haunches and his concerned look turns to one of confusion.

"So, do we get to know what happened, because that is definitely not nothing" Tony said looking at her expectantly and as she looked around the rest of their faces had matching expressions.

"Would you believe it if I said I walked into a door?" she tried hopefully but knew it was just putting off the inevitable, and the look on Steve's face in particular was getting scary even to her, she knew he hated bullies and he isn't going to react well.

"Try again" Tony said tilting his head to the side still frowning.

"Fine, it's Flash and his goons, they've been doing this sort of stuff for years, before me and Peter made friends with Ned he used to be the only one they went after and he was covered in bruises every day, when the three of us became friends Ned was terrified of even just going to school and so me and Peter protect him from it, usually Peter will try and distract Flash while we run but today he got Peter on the floor and so I tried to talk Flash down and this was my reward. It's really fine though because we never let Ned take any of it and he is so much happier now and I can take this if it means he isn't alone in dealing with this" Jo said it all almost without breathing between words and there was a long silence after she had stopped speaking.

"Does anyone at the school know this is happening?" Tony said his voice suddenly dark and threatening, a tone she had never heard from him before.

"Well we used to report it, but they would just get a couple of detentions and then it would be far worse for weeks afterwards, so we stopped reporting it and just got good and hiding from him and running" Jo said looking down feeling ashamed to admit to the Avengers of all people that she couldn't stop a little bit of bullying.

"Is Flash this kids real name?" Tony asked, his phone out in his hand already.

"Yes, Flash Thompson. But Tony you can't do anything you'll just make it worse and besides no-one knows my relation to you so if you go over to the school then it will be pretty hard to explain" Jo pleaded.

"Oh, don't worry I have other ways than that" Tony said not that this was particularly reassuring to Jo.

"You said your friend Peter was hit worse than you, do we need to be sending someone to check on him?" Bruce said sounding concerned, and her stomach twisted because how could she get out of this without revealing who Peter was.

"No, his aunt would notice if anything was wrong, and anyway he is a lot tougher than you'd think" she said hoping no-one would question her, Tony knew but she'd rather not be the one to accidentally reveal Peter's identity.

"Fine, but at least put my mind at ease and text him now and I want to see his reply so that we know he is ok" Bruce insisted, and Jo sighed in relief, pulling out her phone she fired off a quick message telling Peter that the others wanted to know if he was ok after the punch and that they had found out about Flash.

"Now that's done, I want a CT scan of your head, no arguments" Bruce said standing up and Jo noticed Tony had stood as well and was walking around, typing something into his phone still as he did so. She knew there was no way around this, so she planted her hand on the arm of the sofa and slowly stood up, as soon as she let go of the sofa though she felt the dizziness come back in waves and she started to sway, but Bruce had grabbed her arm and pulled it around his shoulder in an instant and he half carried, half dragged her out of the room and into the elevator. Tony was following close behind and as the elevator opened into a floor she had never been in before, Tony stepped in under her other shoulder and helped Bruce lift her up onto the bed for the CT scanner that Jo hadn't even noticed before. The scan took about 10 minutes to do and she was half asleep when they finally came to get her out of it, but they seemed relieved and Bruce said that there was no sign of a brain injury.

"Great, well my head is still pounding so I'm going to go to bed for now, I'll see you guys in the morning" Jo told them before heading off to her room.


End file.
